What Is Knowledge? PDF
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García-Gómez:What Is Knowledge page i WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE? García-Gómez:What Is Knowledge page ii SUNY Series in Latin American and Iberian Thought and Culture Jorge J.E.Gracia andRosemary Geisdorfer Feal,editors García-Gómez:What Is Knowledge page iii What Is Knowledge? José Ortega y Gasset (cid:1) Translated and Edited by JORGE GARCÍA-GÓMEZ STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS García-Gómez:What Is Knowledge page iv Published by State University of New York Press,Albany © 2002 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission.No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic,electrostatic,magnetic tape,mechanical,photocopying,recording,or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information,address State University of New York Press, 90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany,NY 12207 Production by Marilyn P.Semerad Marketing by Anne M.Valentine Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ortega y Gasset,José,1883–1955. [¿Qué es conocimiento? English] What is knowledge? / José Ortega y Gasset ; translated and edited by Jorge García-Gómez. p.cm.— (SUNY series in Latin American and Iberian thought and culture) Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn0-7914-5171-2 (alk.paper)—isbn0-7914-5172-0 (pbk.: alk.paper) 1.Knowledge,Theory of. I.García-Gómez,Jorge. II.Ortega y Gasset,José,1883–1955.Ideas y creencias. III.Title. IV.Series. b4568.o73 q42 2001 121—dc21 2001031186 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 García-Gómez:What Is Knowledge page v This translation is dedicated to Sara,beloved wife and best friend García-Gómez:What Is Knowledge page viblank García-Gómez:What Is Knowledge page vii Contents (cid:1) Translator’s Introduction 1 Jorge García-Gómez Spanish Editor’s Note 29 Paulino Garagorri I Life as Performance (Performative Being) 31 Problems 33 December 19,1929 35 The 1929–1930 Course 40 First Day 40 Second Day 42 Third Day 46 Sixth Day 55 Seventh Day 65 Eighth Day 71 II Concerning Radical Reality 75 Second Lecture 77 Third Lecture 84 Fourth Lecture 93 III What Is Life? 103 Third Lecture 105 Fifth Lecture 108 Sixth Lecture 116 Seventh Lecture 127 Eighth Lecture 136 vii García-Gómez:What Is Knowledge page viii vviiiiii WWhhaatt IIss KKnnoowwlleeddggee?? IV Glimpses of the History of Philosophy 153 Ninth Lecture 155 Tenth Lecture 156 Eleventh Lecture 167 Appendix: Ideas and Beliefs 175 Chapter One: Believing and Thinking 177 I We Have Ideas,But We Find Ourselves Placed in Our Beliefs.To “Think About Things”and “To Count on Them.” 177 II The Befuddlement of Our Times.We Believe in Reason,Not in Its Ideas.Science Almost Poetry. 181 III Doubt and Belief.A “Sea of Doubts.”The Place of the Ideas. 185 Chapter Two: Inner Worlds 189 I The Philosopher’s Ridiculousness.A Car’s Breakdown and the Breakdown of History. “Ideas and Beliefs,”All Over Again. 189 II The Ingratitude of Human Beings and Naked Reality. 192 III Science as Poetry.A Triangle and Hamlet. The Treasury of Errors. 196 IV The Articulation of the Inner Worlds. 199 Notes 205 Bibliography 245 Index 253 García-Gómez:What Is Knowledge page 1 Translator’s Introduction Jorge García-Gómez (cid:1) Understandably,Paulino Garagorri,in his capacity of editor of the origi- nal version of this book,1was reluctant to offer the reader his own assess- ment of the work,preferring to defer to the reader’s unprejudiced consid- eration.2 Accordingly, he confined himself to taking a look at it from a vantage point internal to Ortega’s “entire philosophical work,” and on that basis he came to the conclusion that,“[a]s to the intellectual signifi- cance of the new book,”one could appropriately say that “it is destined to be one of the most important parts of his legacy.”3 I certainly concur with him in that,and yet I cannot rest my case with a simple acknowledg- ment of agreement,if for no other reason than the fact that Garagorri, following Ortega’s own choice and his usage of terms in this work,4has chosen the Spanish equivalent of What Is Knowledge?as the title for the book. But that decision, in my opinion, may prove misleading to the reader,for it seems to suggest that this work of Ortega’s should be under- stood as if it were a mere effort on his part to arrive at a further articula- tion of the longstanding philosophical preoccupation with knowledge and as his particular contribution to the field that has come to be known as epistemology or theory or knowledge.5 That however would be, in fact,a fatal misinterpretation of his intent and a failure to appreciate its radicalness.Let me attempt to show that this is the case. Some Epistemological Traditions Asafirstapproachtothephilosophicaldisciplineinquestion,onecould saythatepistemology“isabranchofphilosophywhichisconcernedwith thenatureandscopeofknowledge,itspresuppositionsandbasis,andthe 1
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