José Ortega y Gasset was a Spanish philosopher, essayist, sociologist, and philosopher of culture who worked across the first half of the twentieth century.

Born in Madrid on 9 May 1883, Ortega y Gasset received his early education at St. Stanislaus Kostka College in Málaga before going on to study at the University of Deusto and later at the Universidad Central. These institutions shaped the academic foundation from which he would build a career that spanned philosophy, sociology, and cultural thought. He wrote and worked in Spanish throughout his life, and his output extended beyond scholarship to include opinion journalism, translation, and politics.

Alongside his roles as a writer and public intellectual, Ortega y Gasset worked as a university teacher, bringing his ideas into formal academic settings. He was associated with the Noucentisme movement, a cultural current that connected his work to broader currents of European thought. His contributions were recognized with two German honors: the Goethe Medal for Art and Science and the Goethe Plaque of the City of Frankfurt. These awards reflect the reach his work had beyond Spain's borders during his lifetime.

Ortega y Gasset died in Madrid on 18 October 1955, in the same city where he had been born more than seven decades earlier. His Library of Congress authorized name, "Ortega y Gasset, José, 1883-1955," anchors the archival record of a career that moved between philosophy, cultural sociology, journalism, and public life. Philosophy of culture remained a consistent thread running through the many roles he occupied over the course of his working life.