Ortega believed that modern man has developed "instrumental reason" (how to build things) but lost "historical reason" (why things are the way they are).
By treating the present as a permanent fixture rather than a fragile achievement, society risks backsliding into barbarism. Ortega warned that a world governed by specialists—who know everything about one tiny niche but nothing of the whole—is a world incapable of navigating its own future. JosГ© Ortega y Gasset and the Dilemma of Modern Man
Ortega’s "mass-man" isn’t defined by social class, but by a psychological state. This individual feels "just like everybody else" and is perfectly content with it. Ortega believed that modern man has developed "instrumental