Authenticity and Will: A Critical Approach to Ortega y Gasset’s Philosophy of Education

Abstract

The author notes that José Ortega y Gasset’s philosophy of education revolves around the imperative of authenticity which he extends to cover educational institutions, teachers and first of all students. He censures the main points of Ortega’s philosophy of education highlighting its strengths and weaknesses as well as its potential application in school education. He is specifically critical of how Ortega’s earlier philosophy sought to achieve authenticity through notions of ‘circumstance’ and ‘decision’. He subsequently analyzes what Ortega regarded as a constitutive tragedy of pedagogy and the mission he assigned to university. As regards Ortega’s philosophy in his later years, the author examines his proposal to reach authenticity by listening to one’s own voice of call stemming from each individual belief to suggest how to help students in becoming aware of their own beliefs. The author agrees with Ortega that students’ happiness largely depends on how much they are in agreement with themselves or their own beliefs.