In El tema de nuestro tiempo Ortega responds philosophically to the new time that has been emerging since the beginning of the twentieth century. The previous epoch, modernity, has been dominated by the binomial formed by culturalist idealism and the economistic understanding of life as work. This modern culture opposes reason and life. That is why it has entered into crisis, because it is not capable of reaching the heart of human beings or of orienting existence. In El tema de nuestro tiempo Ortega presents a culture of vital reason based on the synthesis between the cultural and the vital, and on the understanding of life as sport and party. Only a culture that remains in permanent contact with life will be able to orient existence. Vital reason understands reality and knowledge as perspective.