Ortega's New Philology

Forays into Saying and Silencing

Abstract

This article delves into the philological theory of the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset, which he himself termed “new philology”. His proposal for philological reform, seen as a necessary precursor to the resurgence of a new philosophy — one that in his thought would be the philosophy of vital and historical reason, — centers around the problematics of “saying authentically” and silencing. These two components of speech are only clarified and revitalized considering two factors: the biographical intentionality of the speaker and the vital, historical, and circumstantial context. This article aims to reconstruct the “biographical archaeology of saying authentically and silencing” present in Ortega's philosophy.