IB Philosophy 10.7.2 Crisis of Individuality and Excellence Notes

The Decline of the Noble Individual

1. As introduced in 10.7.1, Ortega y Gasset distinguishes between the mass man and the select man. In this topic, the focus shifts to what happens when the select man's values are systematically displaced.
   1. Ortega argues that modern European civilization faces a crisis of individuality because the qualities that once defined excellence are no longer cultivated, rewarded, or even recognized.
2. The noble individual in Ortega's sense is characterized by self-demand. This is not a demand imposed from outside by law or custom, but an internal discipline through which the individual holds himself to standards higher than those required by social convention.
   1. The noble individual treats life as a project of continuous self-overcoming.
3. Ortega's concept of nobility is explicitly ethical rather than hereditary. He redefines nobility as a quality of character: the noble person is one who demands more of himself than of others, while the mass man demands more of others than of himself.
   1. This inversion of traditional aristocratic language (taking a term like "nobility" that once meant birth-rank and redefining it as a matter of character) is central to Ortega's philosophical project: nobility is redefined as a universal aspiration rather than a birthright.
4. The crisis arises because modern democratic culture tends to equate equality with uniformity. Ortega does not oppose political democracy; he supports it as a form of government.
   1. What he opposes is the extension of egalitarian sentiment (the feeling that all opinions and people deserve equal respect in every context) into intellectual and moral domains, where the result is a levelling of standards rather than a raising of opportunities.
5. This levelling process produces what Ortega calls the triumph of the commonplace. When the mass man's values dominate, society ceases to distinguish between genuine achievement and mere popularity.

The Levelling of Values and the Triumph of Mediocrity

1. The artist, the scientist, and the thinker are judged not by the quality of their work but by their ability to attract mass approval.

1. Nietzsche's influence on Ortega is evident here. Nietzsche's critique of herd morality (10.5.2) similarly warns that modern culture rewards conformity over creative individuality.
   1. Both thinkers argue that the levelling of values produces a culture in which mediocrity is mistaken for virtue and genuine excellence is treated with suspicion or hostility.
2. However, Ortega's position differs from Nietzsche's in important respects. Where Nietzsche calls for a radical revaluation of values and envisions the Ubermensch as a solitary creator of new meaning, Ortega's noble individual remains socially embedded.
   1. Excellence for Ortega is not about standing above society but about serving it through discipline and contribution.
3. The crisis of individuality connects to questions about personal identity (1.1.1) and self-consciousness (1.4.1). Ortega implies that genuine selfhood requires active construction; it is not something given but something achieved through effort.
   1. The mass man's refusal to make demands on himself represents a failure to develop a distinctive individual identity.
4. Ortega's analysis anticipates existentialist themes that would be developed more fully by Sartre and de Beauvoir. The idea that authenticity requires active self-creation rather than passive acceptance of social roles connects directly to the existentialist insistence that existence precedes essence (1.6.3).
   1. For both traditions, the failure to choose is itself a choice, and one that diminishes the self.