Between radical life and ordinary life. Some remarks on the theme of everydayness (Alltäglichkeit) in Ortega y Gasset

Abstract

In 1928, barely a year after the publication of Sein und Zeit, Ortega y Gasset, during a series of conferences given in Buenos Aires, hails the author as a genius, pointing to the “enormity” – his own word – of the Heideggerian discovery, which can be expressed in a formulation of just four words “being in the world” (encontrarse en el mundo). There can be no doubt that Ortega saw in worldly phenomenology an ally of choice that would reinforce his reflections engaged in the Meditaciones del Quijote on the circumstantiality of life. This study endeavours to review the highlights of this repeatedly missed encounter – the vital reason that only exists due to the fact that it escapes ontology – but for which the invariable meeting point is nevertheless very much linked to the course of our everyday lives.