Origen y epilogo de la filosofia

This essay on the roots and historical justification of philosophy marks a decisive step in posing the problem of what philosophy is. Jose Ortega y Gasset re-creates "the moment when Parmenides began talking about something exceptionally strange, which he called 'being." How and why, he asks, did such a surprising adventure come about?" "Considering the human qualities that prompt a curiosity about existence and eternity, Ortega examines philosophy's etymology, its connection to poetry, and its differentiation from religion and other modes of thought . He lucidly delineates radical differences of doctrine and style among early Greek thinkers, especially the "madman of reason" Parmenides and the "absolute individual" Heraclitus. He also considers philosophy's fundamental task of revealing the latent world poised behind the manifest world and discovering the relations between them.