Ortega soon realized that World War I  would split European culture into a before and after. His philosophical thought  at this time is a constant  questioning about what is dying and being  born with the 20th  century. Ortega was convinced that historical events are like hieroglyphics to be deciphered and saw in “young art” (Dadaism, Ultraísmo, Futurism, and Surrealism) a symptom of what he called "to live up to the times“, and in this young artist the individual who, thanks to his sensitivity, will become a trendsetter of future aesthetics and lifestyles.