Abstract

The criticism of contemporary  European culture, Expressem

by Julian Marias, is presented in the paper. Julian Marias is a philosopher belonging to the Madrid School. He is also a follower of  J. Ortega y Gasset and his ratiovitalism. An analysis of the present time in the case of Ortega and Marias results from the postulate of philosophical radicalism which suggests that a philosopher should recognize the cultural situation in which his mental processes preceed. He, however, may not trust any kind of existing knowledge. An attempt to answer the question if the criticism of mass culture proposed by J. Marias  meets the above mentioned condition was made in the paper. A comparison between the description and evaluation of culture provided by J. Marias, the heses of  J. Ortega y Gasset (The Revolt of the Masses),  and the results of research  conducted  by Rother scholars enabled to conclude that the criticism of culture by J. Marias is of ten based upon the evaluations made by Ortega, and is not related to reality. Moreover, similarly to the heses proposed by Ortega, it seems to be one-sided and anachronistic. What follows, J. Marias does not fulfill the postulate of philisophical radicalism.