Europe in Crisis: Catastrophic Visions of Alexander Herzen and José Ortega y Gasset

Abstract

This article presents the problem of the European crisis as seen by two thinkers: the nineteenth-century Russian philosopher Alexander Hercen and the Spanish philosopher of the first half of the twentieth century, José Ortega y Gasset. Undoubtedly their philo-sophy grew on the basis of different historical and cultural circumstances. Paradoxically, both thinkers presented surprisingly similar views on the nature and causes of the crisis consuming European culture. Observing the nineteenth century Europe, Hercen anticipated some of the ideas related to the crisis in Europe, evident later in the thought of Ortega y Gasset. Hercen and Ortega’s thought on crisis is characterized by two basic similarities: firstly, the kind of catastrophism presented by both thinkers; secondly, the philosophical approach to the idea of the mass and social elite.