Abstract

NUNEZ-LADEVEZE, Luis  and  NUNEZ CANAL, Margarita. Environment or Galaxy: The Quotations from Ortega y Gasset that McLuhan used in War and Peace. Palabra Clave [online]. 2022, vol.25, n.2, e2524.  Epub May 23, 2022. ISSN 0122-8285.  https://doi.org/10.5294/pacla.2022.25.2.4.

McLuhan cites Ortega y Gasset’s works, including History as a System and Other Essays Toward a Philosophy of History and Man and People, in two passages from War and Peace in the Global Village, six years after publishing The Gutenberg Galaxy and four years after Understanding Media. These readings coincide with the abandonment of the expression “galaxy,” which he replaced with “environment.” Based on these findings, we have examined McLuhan’s citations of Ortega and their relation to the replacement of “galaxy” for “environment” for the first time. Using a method of direct collation of the Ortega’s works that McLuhan read in English with the original texts written by Ortega, this study aims to show a relationship between the use of the term “environment” by McLuhan and Ortega’s concept of “circumstance,” which has gone unnoticed by specialists. McLuhan tacitly endorsed some of the main ideas of Orteguian philosophy.

Keywords : Mass communication; press; environment; revolution; technology.

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