José Ortega y Gasset (1883–1955) , Spanish essayist and philosopher, remains one of the most famous Spanish philosophers of the last century. Jorge García-Gómez is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Long Island University and has translated several books, including Antonio Rodríguez Huéscar's José Ortega y Gasset's Metaphysical Innovation: A Critique and Overcoming of Idealism, also published by SUNY Press, and José Ortega y Gasset's Psychological Investigations.

"…a highly original, very readable book that carries the reader's interest from lecture to lecture in unanticipated ways. The lucid journey imaginatively rethinks many common philosophical starting points, habits of thought, and standard articulations regarding such questions as what it is to philosophize, how most accurately to describe human life and its realities, how to set up and describe the process of knowing, and what it is that we can count on in human life." — Review of Metaphysics"As to the intellectual significance of this new book by Ortega,it is destined to be one of the most important parts of his legacy." — from the Spanish editor's note by Paulino Garagorri

• Translator's IntroductionJorge Garcia-Gomez Spanish Editor's NotePaulino Garagorri I. Life as Performance (Performative Being) Problems December 19, 1929 The 1929-1930 Course First DaySecond DayThird DaySixth DaySeventh DayEighth Day II. Concerning Radical Reality Second LectureThird LectureFourth Lecture III. What Is Life? Third LectureFifth LectureSixth LectureSeventh LectureEighth Lecture IV. Glimpses of the History of Philosophy Ninth LectureTenth LectureEleventh Lecture Appendix: Ideas and Beliefs 1: Believing and Thinking I. We Have Ideas, But We Find Ourselves Placed in Our Beliefs. To "Think About Things" and "To Count on Them."II. The Befuddlement of Our Times. We Believe in Reason, Not in Its Ideas. Science Almost Poetry.III. Doubt and Belief. A "Sea of Doubts." The Place of the Ideas. 2: Inner Worlds I. The Philosopher's Ridiculousness. A Car's Breakdown and the Breakdown of History. "Ideas and Beliefs," All Over Again.II. The Ingratitude of Human Beings and Naked RealityIII. Science as Poetry. A Triangle and Hamlet. The Treasury of Errors.IV. The Articulation of the Inner Worlds. Notes Bibliography Index