Science of circumstance and salvation of voca-tion. Ortega y Gasset’s philosophy as integration of science and wisdom.

Abstract

This article aims to show how inseparable science (directed towards knowledge) and wisdom (directed towards practical-existential) in Ortega y Gasset’s philosophy are. This means that the theoretical or scientific dimension of Ortega’s thought does not imply the elimination of its practical-existential dimension. The subject of Ortega’s philosophy insofar as wisdom is the good life and it is this ideal of life what Ortega calls ‘vocation’, i. e., to be oneself, self-realization. But the Self is inseparable from the circumstance. Therefore, to be myself, to save myself, I must save the circumstance. For this reason, we need a science of circumstance that reveals the meaning (es-sence) of this world of life. Ultimately, Ortega's philosophy defends the integration of the theoreti-cal/scientific and the practical.