Marina Post - The impact of Jose Ortega y Gassets on European integration.pdf

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Microsoft Word - Post-S'07 MTL Honor Thesis
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The Impact of José Ortega y Gasset’s
La rebelión de las masas
on European Integration
Marina Post
Faculty Advisor: Professor R. Lane Kauffmann
Submitted for consideration as an honor’s thesis in the Department of Hispanic Studies.
14 November 2006
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Abstract
José Ortega y Gasset’s most famous work, The Revolt of the Masses , represents
his most significant argument for European integration. This thesis attempts to
characterize the impact of Revolt on the political unification of Europe. Although Revolt
was widely read in many countries, several factors impeded the reception of the work as
an impetus for European supranational unity. These factors, among many others,
included controversy in Spain over the alleged elitism of Revolt and French dislike for
Ortega’s ties with German philosophy. However, the work undeniably motivated
intellectuals Manuel García Morente and Raymond Aron in their own efforts toward
European integration. Moreover, Ortega’s works were popular with the general public in
Germany, enabling Ortega to continue his efforts there towards European unity after
World War II. It will be argued that Revolt did have an impact on European integration,
but not to the extent that it merits.
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Table of Contents
I. Introduction
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II. Ortega’s career as a European thinker
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III. The Revolt of the Masses : Summary and main issues
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IV. Ortega’s Revolt in the context of other calls for European unity
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V. The reception of Revolt
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VI. Conclusions
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VII. Epilogue
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Notes
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Bibliography
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Acknowledgements
I am very grateful to my mentor at Rice University, Professor Kauffmann, for his
valuable and generous help and advice. I am also thankful to the Focus Europe Program
at Rice University, especially the directors, Professors Christian Emden and Sarah
Westphal, and to Gary Wihl, Dean of Humanities, for giving me the opportunity and
financial support to carry out this research. This work was first submitted to the Focus
Europe program on 28 August 2006. During the 2006 fall semester, it was revised and
expanded under Professor Kauffmann’s supervision for submission as an honor’s thesis
to the Department of Hispanic Studies. I thank the directors, faculty, and staff of the
Fundación Ortega y Gasset in Madrid for their generosity in permitting me to use the
Foundation’s valuable resources, the most complete collection in the world for Orteguian
research. I especially thank Professors Javier Zamora Bonilla and José Lasaga Medina
for sharing their expertise so generously, and I thank Brenda Shannon and Asen Uña for
their kind assistance at the Foundation.
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I. Introduction
José Ortega y Gasset’s most famous work, La rebelión de las masas ( The Revolt
of the Masses ) (1929-1930), has as its main objective a call for European integration. 1
My essay will attempt to characterize the impact of this work on the movement towards
European unity. Ortega had been an advocate for the Europeanization of Spain long
before the publication of Revolt . However, in 1930, a few years before the work was
published in book form, he began to suggest that the rest of Europe suffered social and
political illnesses along with Spain. Nowhere in all of Ortega’s works is the crisis of
Europe outlined more clearly than in Revolt . According to Ortega, this crisis is
characterized by the masses dominating society. As a consequence, society is left
without a goal toward which to work. Ortega calls for the nations of Europe to unify
politically, creating the “Estados Unidos de Europa” (“United States of Europe”; 107), a
supranation with complete sovereignty over its states ( OC IV 242). 2 Among its many
qualities, the European ideal outlined in Revolt contains the unique proposition that only
a united Europe, and no other nation, can be the leading power in the world. This call to
European unity in Revolt fit in well with the Pan-European movement in the 1920s and
the 1930s. From 1930-1955, Ortega was able to continue his own efforts towards
European integration using the European ideal outlined in Revolt. Ortega’s international
fame gained from the work was also instrumental in his subsequent efforts towards
European unity. A few Europeanists, such as Manuel García Morente and Raymond
Aron, have acknowledged the merits of Revolt and its influence on their own

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