José Ortega y Gasset was born in Madrid on 9 May 1883. He studied philosophy there before continuing his education in Germany from 1905 to 1909. While at the University of Marburg, he was strongly influenced by the Neo-Kantianism of Hermann Cohen and Paul Natorp. In 1910, he was appointed Professor of Metaphysics at the University of Madrid. He later founded the highly influential journal Revista de Occidente in 1923. With the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, he went into exile, living in Argentina, Portugal, and other European countries from 1936 until 1945. Following his return to Madrid in 1945, he continued his prolific work as a writer without interruption. He died in his hometown on 18 October 1955. Among his most significant works are Meditations on Quixote (1914), What is Philosophy? (1929), and his most famous book, The Revolt of the Masses (1929). His key philosophical contributions include his theory of "ratiovitalism" (reason grounded in life), perspectivism, and his critique of the "mass man." Ortega y Gasset is widely regarded as one of the most important philosophers of the 20th century.