AQC for Today, for Tomorrow, and for ever . . .
José Ortega y Gassett was probably the most important philosopher Spain has produced. He was certainly more significant than Santayana, or, I think, than Unamuno. He was primarily interested in the philosophy of history, and he realized that the first philosopher to deal with the implications of the issues raised by history was Heraclitus, the "philosopher of flux", or, in more modern terms, the idea of change. Ortega y Gassett wrote:
"Ha llegado la hora de que la simiente de Heráclito dé su magna cosecha."It was of history that Heraclitus spoke when he said: "One cannot step twice in the same river, for there come down waters, and yet other waters."
(The time has come for the seed sown by Heraclitus to bring forth its mighty harvest.)
Historia como sistema (1941), p. 39-40.
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History as a System: Historia como sistema. Spanish edition, 1941; in Raymond Klibansky, Ed. Philosophy and History: Festschrift for Ernst Cassirer (1935), p. 305. Obras Completas, vol. VI.
Note: My opinion of Ortega y Gassett is not mine alone. Here is another: "The Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset was one of the outstanding philosophers of the twentieth century, and one who focused most directly and consistently on issues of social, or human, systems." (Arthur Warmoth, "José Ortega y Gasset and Human Systems Science", 2005)
