In A Watch Over Mortality Harold Raley offers the English-speaking world Julián Marías's compelling alternatives to contemporary minimalist thought, and does so in a dynamic style that itself reflects the humane spirit and verve of what may well prove to be the most innovative philosophy of modern times. Here for the first time Marías's philosophy is revealed in its full historical depth, its many interrelated levels, its fascinating aperçus, and its real or possible applicability to many humanistic disciplines.

In order to do justice to Marías and his way of thinking, Raley narrates the evolution of this philosophy from early antecedents in Germanic and Ortegan phenomenology to Marías's own original contributions. For this reason A Watch Over Mortality is not only a book about Marías but also about Ortega y Gasset and his times, about twentieth-century Spanish culture, and, ultimately, about the nature of Spain itself. The book is itself an exercise in the very method and style of the philosophy it explicates.