Territorial Philosophies of Relativity and the Unity of Spain: Ors and Ortega on Einstein and Relativity at the Service of Catalan Noucentisme and the Spanish Republic

Abstract In the aftermath of the Spanish War, the Catalan philosopher Eugeni d'Ors and the Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset offered a read-ing of Einstein's theory of relativity in which discussions of unity and plurality connected their respective synthetic philosophies and nation-alist projects of political and cultural analysis and reform. In particular, frequent references to Einstein tracked their respective philosophical views, territorial concerns and personal circumstances regarding the relations between Catalonia, Spain and Europe. Einstein's theory sym-bolized the saving connection between the classical and the modern, Europe and the Mediterranean, and science and philosophy. In this pa per I examine the inseparable case of Ors in relation to Catalan nation-alism and the project he called Noucentisme and of Ortega in relation to Spanish nationalism and his political philosophy in España Invertebrada.