Philosophy in Don Quixote

Commentary on the Meditations of Ortega y Gasset

This small book is a commentary on the first published book of the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset in which he draws philosophical insights from the classic novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616). José Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955) was a Spanish philosopher who anticipated many of the themes of later, more famous existentialists such as Heidegger. In the Meditations on Quixote (1914), Ortega anticipates many of the philosophical ideas that he developed during the rest of his life. Reading Ortega's insights will deepen your experience of daily life as you learn to think philosophically about your circumstance. Oswald Sobrino is a Ph.D. student in Latin and Roman Studies in the Classics Department at the University of Florida, with interests in ancient Roman slavery and Seneca the Younger. He is also interested in and has written on the philosophy of José Ortega y Gasset. You can browse on this page a now available book series on Ortega y Gasset: Freedom and Circumstance (2011), Philosophy in Don Quixote (2015), Technology and Human Existence (2019), and Mass Mentality: Updating Ortega's Revolt of the Masses (2019).

Cover Image of El Escorial: Jebulon, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.