IB Philosophy 10.7 the Revolt of the Masses – José Ortega y Gasset 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.

the sphere of voluntary associations, institutions, and organisations that operate independently of the state, including religious groups, trade unions, the press, charities, and community organisations. Political philosophers from Hegel to Habermas have debated whether civil society is a necessary complement to state power or a site of class conflict.

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.

Epistemology is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature, sources, and limits of knowledge, including the distinction between knowledge and opinion, the role of reason and experience, and the conditions under which beliefs count as justified.

Existential angst (also called anguish or anxiety) is a profound feeling of dread that arises from awareness of one's own radical freedom, the absence of a predetermined essence, and the inescapable responsibility for creating oneself through one's choices.

Horizons of meaning are Taylor's term for the broader frameworks of significance (moral, cultural, spiritual, historical) against which our choices and actions become meaningful; without such horizons, even freely chosen actions are reduced to arbitrary preferences that lack genuine moral weight.

Human nature refers to the set of characteristics, capacities, and dispositions thought to be shared by all human beings, independent of culture, upbringing, or historical context, and that define what it fundamentally means to be human.

In Ortega y Gasset's philosophy, hyperdemocracy is the condition in which the mass man extends democratic equality beyond politics into every domain of life, insisting that his opinions on art, science, and morality are as valid as those of any trained specialist.

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.

a political philosophy that prioritizes individual rights, limited government, and personal freedom. Ortega both draws upon and critiques liberal tradition, arguing that liberalism's achievements require a culturally disciplined citizenry that mass society may no longer produce.

Mass civilization is Ortega y Gasset's term for a society organized around mass production and consumption, in which technological convenience replaces individual effort and the achievements of civilization are enjoyed without understanding the intellectual labour that produced them.

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.

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.

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.

Ortega y Gasset's concept of the noble life (vida noble) describes a life organized around self-imposed demands and discipline, in which the individual treats freedom not as a right to comfort but as a continuous obligation to grow, contribute, and hold oneself to standards that exceed what society requires.

Radical responsibility is the view, shared by Ortega and the existentialists, that human beings are fundamentally accountable for the kind of person they become, because identity is not given but constructed through choices that cannot be delegated to society, tradition, or circumstance.

The revolt of the masses is Ortega y Gasset's term for the phenomenon in which the mass man rejects the guidance of intellectual and moral elites, insisting on his right to judge, govern, and direct society without acknowledging the authority of expertise, tradition, or disciplined thought.

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.

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.

Technological determinism is the view that technology drives social change independently of human choice, reducing culture, politics, and values to effects of technological development. Ortega resists this position by insisting that technology's effects depend on the character of the people who use it.