Abstract

Ortega’s reflection on Europe cannot be separated from his idea of nation and from his analysis of Spain. In his early writings the meditation on Europe is closely connected with the meditation on the change of identity that Europe imposes on Spain: Europe, in other words, reveals itself as the indispensable “instrument” for a new, authentic creation of the Spanish nation. Starting from The Revolt of the Masses, Ortega deals with the problem of the European crisis regarding as its solution the overcoming of the nation-state. But his diagnosis seems to neglect the intellectual, political and moral aspects of the issue, selecting the hiatus between economic potentialities and political institutions as the only cause of the decadence