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Legitimate authority
In Ortega's philosophy, legitimate authority derives not from coercive power but from demonstrated competence, moral seriousness, and intellectual discipline, sustained through ongoing achievement rather than institutional position alone.
Moral responsibility
Moral responsibility is the status of being worthy of praise or blame for one's actions, typically requiring that the agent acted freely, with knowledge of what they were doing, and with the capacity to have done otherwise.
Noble individual
In Ortega y Gasset's philosophy, the noble individual (or select man) is a person who lives under self-imposed demands and strives toward standards of excellence that exceed mere comfort, defined not by birth or social position but by a habit of requiring more of oneself than the surrounding culture expects.
Self-demand
Self-demand (exigencia) is Ortega's central concept describing the internal discipline through which an individual holds himself to standards higher than those imposed by society, treating life as a project of continuous self-improvement rather than passive consumption.