The Influence of the of Martin Heidegger's Philosophy on the Interpretation of Kant through José Ortega y Gasset

Abstract

There are two essays by José Ortega y Gasset primarily about the philosophy of Immanuel Kant: Reflexiones del centenario and Anejo a mi folleto Kant. In these texts the philosophy of Martin Heidegger, and specifically the conceptual structure of the fundamental ontology, has a decisive influence on the interpretation of the transcendental philosophy Ortega elaborates. The most important instant of Ortega's approach is in his essay Anejo a mi folleto Kant, which interprets the Kantian critique of pure reason as the critique of vital reason. In this essay, to conclude his reasoning Ortega expresses an opinion almost identical with Heidegger's thesis about Kantian philosophy, without exact reference to him in the above essays.