Ortega e la caccia: riflessioni preistoriche

In 1942 Ortega wrote a large Preface to the book on big-game haunting written by his friend the Count of Yebes. The aim of this paper is to investigate this preface-essay and illustrate its centrality and coherence with the main lines of Ortega thought. First of all, it is our intention to show that the essay appears as a perfect exemplification of the method of historical and narrative reason, which Ortega developed from the mid-thirties. In mutually investigating prehistoric and sporting hunting, the Spanish philosopher focuses on its magic and mimetic rituals. Following his philosophical and historical-anthropological attitude, this paper intends to pay particular attention to some important issues such as the problematic relationship between nature and history and the origin of human thought. Moreover, we try to show how starting from this essay on hunting, Ortega formulates an idea of happiness based on the concepts of diversión and distracción.