著者

長谷川 高生

出版者

近畿医療福祉大学

雑誌

近畿福祉大学紀要 (ISSN:13461672)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.7, no.1, pp.37-48, 2006-06-15

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The contemporary society, at which modern society could finally arrive, is a mass societywhere the average vulgar mass-man is contented with good facilities in a modern civilization.Such a mass-man entirely disregards the value of tradition in the historical past, deeplyimmerses himself in self-satifaction, and oversympathizes with anonymous others. Above all things, I think, it is the absence of the historical past and tradition in the presentday that roduces the basic cause of the conditions of mass society in our time. In thispaper, I will study the opinion of J. Ortega y Gasset, the Spanish philosopher who isworldwide famous for his "The Revolt of the Masses" published in 1930, about the "Past",that is to say, the past and tradition in history. In Japan, the Third Opening has inaugurated revisions of the Japanese Constitution and theFundamental Law of Education. These revisions may add the concepts of history andtradition to two fundamental laws, because the active Constitution and the Fundamental Lawof Education are lacking in these concepts. Ortega, the philosopher who belonged to the school of Philosophy of Life in the history ofwestern thoughts, attempted to establish his philosophy of vital reason or historical reason,by criticizing modern rationalism and by emphasizing the importance of life, particularlypastness and futurity on the base of presentness in the temporality of life. And also Ortega,the transitional philosopher from modern to postmodern times, showed an ambivalent attitude,negative and positive, toward the past and tradition in premodern history which wasrefused by the modern era. Therefore, I will try to clarify Ortega's opinion on the "Past" inhistory, particularly historical past, traditionalism, and feudalism, by applying to them thetheory temporality which consists of pastness, presentness, and futurity in subjective time.Pursuing and considering the "Past" in history, Ortega discovers the historical structure ofhuman beings, the actual exstence of historical past, the value of tradition, and thespiritualism of feudalism. And moreover, he catches the dualism of passive, traditional, andinertia power - pastness - and positive, challenging, and active power - futurity -, in humanbeings both as individuals and as groups.Finally, I intend to find the interaction of pastness and futurity in Ortega's view of the"Past" in history, confirming the actuality of historical past, the value of tradition, and thejustification of feudalism.