The Origin of Philosophy (Paperback, New Ed)

Writers think in images, philosophers in abstractions. However, when a reasoner also wants to be imaginative, says Borges, things go slightly awry, as witness Ortega, "whose good thought is obstructed by difficult and adventitious metaphors." Not surprisingly, in Ortega's unfinished essay, The Origin of Philosophy which we are told he regarded as potentially "the most important of his books," we find him paying close attention to the language, the nuances of Parmenides or Heraclitus, and speaking of the "need to compose an ultra-grammar of stylization." Ortega's attraction to the artistic properties inherent in dialectical processes is here, however, very relevant, for, in discussing the pre-Socratics and the background of philosophy in general, questions of etymology, even of rhetoric, are paramount: these bring us to the root of conceptual bases or cosmological formulations. "We do not know," Ortaga says wittily, "whether a dual world existed prior to philosophy"; and he cautions elsewhere, philosophy itself only "came about one fine day in Greece...with no guarantee...of its perpetuation." It is a pity this Spanish mandarin never completed such a brilliantly speculative work. (Kirkus Reviews)

Ortega deals here with the roots and historical justification of philosophy, and the question of philosophy's essential unity.

General

Imprint:	W W Norton & Co Inc
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	April 1968
First published:	May 1968
Authors:	Jose Ortega y Gasset
Translators:	Toby Talbot
Dimensions:	203 x 127 x 25mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback
Pages:	128
Edition:	New Ed
ISBN-13:	978-0-393-00128-0
Categories:	Books > Humanities > Philosophy > Western philosophy > General Books > Philosophy > Western philosophy > General Promotions
LSN:	0-393-00128-8
Barcode:	9780393001280

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