Jose Ortega Y. Gasset (9 May 1883-18 October 1955) was a Spanish liberal philosopher and essayist working during the first half of the 20th century.
Ortega Y. Gasset wrote that life is at the same time fate and freedom, and that freedom “is being free inside of a given fate. Fate gives us an inexorable repertory of determinate possibilities, that is, it gives us different destinies. We accept fate and within it we choose one destiny.” In this tied down fate we must therefore be active, decide and create a “project of life”-thus not because those who live a conventional life of customs and given structures who prefer an unconcerned and imperturbable life because they are afraid of the duty of choosing a project.