IB Philosophy 10.7.5 the Role of the Intellectual and the Minority Key Definitions

Developed by Martha Nussbaum and Amartya Sen, the capabilities approach evaluates human well-being and social justice by measuring what people are actually able to do and to be, rather than what resources they formally possess. It holds that a just society must guarantee every person a sufficient threshold of real, effective opportunities across central areas of human life, including bodily health, education, political participation, and emotional expression.

For Ortega y Gasset, cultural renewal is the process by which a civilization revitalizes its intellectual and moral foundations by reconnecting with the standards of excellence that a select minority embodies, offering the only alternative to the civilizational decline that mass dominance produces.

In Ortega y Gasset's philosophy, the mass man is a social type defined not by class but by a psychological attitude of self-satisfaction and complacency, marked by a refusal to demand more of oneself than what comes easily.

In Ortega y Gasset's philosophy, the select minority (minoria selecta) consists of individuals who live under self-imposed demands and hold themselves to standards of intellectual and moral excellence, serving as the creative and guiding force of civilization through the quality of their contributions rather than coercive power.