Seminar “Being-in-the-world as an idea: the venue of Ortega and Heidegger”

Despite of the striking difference between the philosophical strategies, publications and attitudes to their audience, Jose Ortega y Gasset and Martin Heidegger would probably have nothing to argue about, if their philosophical argumentation hadn’t lead them to the very same essential issues. One of these issues is the question of human being in the world. This fundamental question was in the center of attention of many thinkers in the beginning of XX century, and each of them found one’s own ways of answering it. Ortega y Gasset created his concept of “circumstances” in 1914, when his Meditaciones del Quijote were published, and later it was developed in his “theory of ideas and beliefs”. His theory can hardly be considered as truly rigorouse one, it is rather an attempt to describe the possible space of answers to this fundamental question. At the same time, Heidegger assumes that in order to answer the questions “what is the essence and meaning of human being?”, it is necessary to re-establish the questioning of being itself, whereas his concept of Dasein is evolved. As we can see, these are two different points of departure for thought. At the same time, can we say that, despite all the difference, these ideas may at some points become close to each other or overlap?