Customer Reviews

Tragic Sense of Life

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Other reviewers have called this book "philosophy for real men." Unamuno begins with this assertion. He rejects the Socratic "Man" as a creature of thought and not of substance. "Soy un hombre de carne y hueso!" he says: "I am a man of flesh and bone."

He works to provide the basis for a belief based on on reason, which he calls anti-vital, but on necessity. It is necessary for us, as men of flesh and bone, to believe that we can exist indefinitely. Reason tells us that we cannot. It is the confluence of these two beliefs that creates the tragic sense of life.

This is one of the best and most important books I've read, and I'd recommend it to anyone capable of sitting down and reading it.

One of my favorite books in the field of philosophy. Unamuno seems to effortlessly cut through so much of the time-wasting academic drollery and nonsense that often clutters up this vital area of study. This isn't a philosopher getting lost in his own inane definitions and absurd mind games, this is the work of a man who lives to think, and thinks because he is in awe of life. Highly recommended to those who philosophize because they need to, not because they are trying to make other people think they are intelligent...

This isn't another book which tries to explain life (and death, religion, love, etc.) from a logical point of view. This a book written for men who live, suffer, love and get drunk sometimes. In other words, you don't have to have read a lot of philosophy before, you just have to live in this world, with its everyday troubles. If you like to read quality books, this is the one I recommend.

_Tragic Sense of Life_ is a translation of _Del Sentimiento Tragico de la Vida_, originally published in 1913, by the Spanish (Basque) existentialist philosopher Miguel de Unamuno, translated by J. E. Crawford Flitch. This work is an important one in Spanish literature and offers an attempt to expound upon a uniquely Spanish philosophy (influenced in particular by for example Cervantes and his _Don Quixote). This is also an important existentialist work, which considers the interplay and contrast between faith and reason. Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936) was a Roman Catholic Spanish intellectual who participated to some extent in the Basque nationalist movement (though he remained skeptical of Basque separatism) and was witness to the Carlist wars. Unamuno also lived through the fascist revolution in Spain and eventually came to oppose the Franco regime because of its brutality. Unamuno's life was one of profound religious crisis (perhaps brought on by the early deaths of his father and his son), and he attempted to resolve this crisis in his writings. However, despite the fact that Unamuno was and remained a Roman Catholic, he was heavily influenced by the Protestant Kierkegaard, and thus his work may be described as having a particularly "Lutheran" aspect to it. In particular, in his understanding of the relationship between faith and reason and in the place of individual autonomy within his philosophy, Unamuno's philosophy may be understood as "Lutheran". It is for this reason that his work was rejected by Catholics and eventually placed on the Index of Prohibited Books. Nevertheless, Unamuno was to remain a Catholic and to argue that the Spanish understanding was a profoundly Catholic one.

Unamuno begins this work by noting that he writes for all Christian men and not just for Spanish Christians. Unamuno also reflects some on the Great War, and the sense of crisis which existed at the time and which underlay all the subsequent existentialist philosophies. The first chapter is entitled "The Man of Flesh and Bone", and it is here that Unamuno contrasts man in the abstract (man considered as humanity, man as the "reasoning animal", man as "homo economicus" and "homo sapiens") with the "man of flesh and bone". Indeed, in contrast to the idea of man as the "reasoning animal", Unamuno maintains that instead man is the feeling animal. Unamuno wittily observes, "More often I have seen a cat reason than laugh or weep. Perhaps it weeps or laughs inwardly - but then perhaps, and also inwardly, the crab resolves equations of the second degree." Unamuno considers the "Protestant" philosophy and God of Kant and contrasts this with the Aristotelian God of Catholicism. Unamuno also mentions Joseph Butler, the Anglican divine, and Cardinal Newman. Unamuno contrasts this with the philosophy of the Jewish Spinoza, a man suffering from "God-ache" for his refusal to believe in immortality. Indeed, the issue of immortality becomes Unamuno's central question; one which he will try to rescue from various objections (such as that it is selfish to wish for immortality). The second chapter is entitled "The Starting-Point". Unamuno comments on the apparent "morbidity" of his reflections. He considers both biblical and Darwinian accounts of man's origin, and then goes on to expound upon the nature of philosophy. The third chapter is entitled "The Hunger of Immortality". Here, Unamuno regards immortality as the central question and the central yearning of man. He considers objections to the belief in immortality (such as that it is selfish to believe in one's immortality or that belief in immortality constitutes a form of materialism), but shows how these objections are ill-founded. Unamuno also brings out again the contrast between the Protestant (Kantian) understanding of God and the Catholic (Aristotelian) one. The fourth chapter is entitled "The Essence of Catholicism". Here, Unamuno shows how Christianity arose from both Hellenism and Judaism. He comments on the letters of Saint Paul. Then, he discusses the rise of the Catholic Church and the Catholic mystics, contrasting the Catholic understanding with the Protestant (Kantian). He also discusses the modernist crisis and mentions such ardent defenders of Catholic orthodoxy as Donoso Cortes and Count Joseph de Maistre. The fifth chapter of this book is entitled "The Rationalist Dissolution". Here, he shows how Catholicism faces a crisis brought on by rationalism, mentioning such philosophers as Hume and Kant. He also mentions the conflict between idealism and materialism and notes the work of William James. Unamuno also presents the writings of George Berkeley and Joseph Butler as examples of philosophers who sought to preserve belief in the immortality of the soul. Unamuno also discusses an interesting book by Frederic W. H. Myers, _Human Personality and its Survival of Bodily Death_, which held him in thrall for a time for what it promised regarding immortality. Unamuno brings out the conflict between faith and reason, mentioning both Pascal and Spinoza in this regard. He also mentions Nietzsche, whose writings he rejects. The sixth chapter of this book is entitled "In the Depths of the Abyss". Here, Unamuno expounds upon both Descartes and Kierkegaard, as well as various further comments on the opposition between faith and reason. The seventh chapter of this book is entitled "Love, Suffering, Pity, and Personality". Unamuno reflects upon these notions and the nature of God. The eighth chapter of this book is entitled "From God to God". Here, Unamuno considers man's understanding of God, contrasting the rationalist God of Aristotle with the more Protestant understanding of God (of for example Kant). The ninth chapter of this book is entitled "Faith, Hope, and Charity". Unamuno reflects upon both faith and hope, but he also calls attention to the possibility of charity. The tenth chapter of this book is entitled "Religion, the Mythology of the Beyond and the Apocatastasis". Unamuno writes upon God, heaven, and hell (mentioning Dante), and he notes his difficulties with the doctrine of hell (claiming that nothingness is worse than eternal torture) which he believes will be resolved in the apocatastasis. The eleventh chapter of this book is entitled "The Practical Problem". Here, Unamuno makes some comments on the nature of work, socialism, and the issue of war and the state (noting its origin in the fratricide of Cain and Abel). The twelvth chapter of this book is entitled "Don Quixote in the Contemporary European Tragi-Comedy". Unamuno notes the role of Don Quixote in Spanish literature and his importance in forming a Spanish philosophy. Unamuno comments on the role of comedy and tragedy, maintaining that life is a comedy for those who think and a tragedy for those who feel. Unaumuno notes that while Don Quixote may be a "reactionary" that he is an heroic one. Unamuno then concludes his book on the "tragic sense of life in men and in peoples", noting the fact that he is a man and that he writes for his people.

Unamuno's writings are certainly beautiful and they play an important part in both Spanish and existentialist literature in the twentieth century. While Unamuno never quite reconciled himself to the Catholic understanding of both faith and reason, he provides a unique philosophy which speaks both to the heart and head.

This book will answer your questions about the significance of life if there are answers.

Some examples of his ideas: Belief in UFOs and a divinity are similar to the extent that there is another consciousness out there. Beware of believing in something that we all so desperately want to believe!

Infinity and finiteness are both absurd notions if you ponder them a bit- if the Universe is infinite then how did it start. If it is finite then what happened just before if started? Our brains are simply limited.

Fascinating stuff about the relationship between love and death! If you read one more book before you die- let it be this one.

The forward to my copy of this book makes a great to do in comparing Unanumo with Wordsworth. Upon finishing the book, I can see why. The gist of this book is that the way to a sort of knowledge of God or immortality is a completely irrational (or perhaps a-rational conveys more the sense in English) struggle with God (rather than the idea of God)and the notion of immortality and thereby achieve the knowledge and FEELING attained by the great mystics.---This is indeed very much in the tradition of Wordsworth's famous Ode.

But Wordsworth's ode was not concerned with a particular religion. Unanumo's book is. This leads to a number of curiosities that are rather hard to swallow. First, of course, is that only Roman Catholics can experience such feelings. Second is his denunciation of Nietsche, whom he very much resembles, particularly when he expatiates on suffering as a good. Methinks he is a bit more influenced by Nietzsche than he likes to admit. In fact,I was reminded of that tragic German philosopher on every page. But, of course, no Roman Catholic can admit that he has been influenced by Nietzsche.

It is encouraging to read someone who dumps the metaphysical muck of the Scholastics etc in the rubbish bin, and also confirms Hume against Kant and others who have supposedly "refuted" him. They have done nothing of the sort, but only spun more meaningless metaphysical webs.

So, all in all, a bit of a mixed bag. But recommended reading, if only because there's nothing else quite like it.

Unamuno's contention is that man's hunger for personal immortality is central and ineradicable. All religion and culture stems from our stark awareness of our mortality and our need for immortality. From man's heart he builds hope in an eternal, because he instinctively hungers for personal immortality. Yet man's reason convinces him there can be no immortality, thus feeling and reason -- heart and head -- are in everlasting deadlock. For Unamuno, all attempts to resolve this deadlock are futile, and ultimately it is this deadlock, the uncertainty it fosters, that forms the foundation for faith. It is this very uncertainty, this longing for immortality in the face of apparently inevitable annihilation, which forms the basis of "the tragic sense of life."

It was the attempt to resolve this conflict between faith and reason, by St. Thomas Aquinas and others, which produced "the Rationalist dissolution" of scholastic philosophy. Philosophers and theologians who attempted to "rationalize" the existence of God only ended up losing their real faith in God, substituting for it faith in the God idea.

Unamuno contends that man needs to believe in his personal immortality, and that those who say they have accepted personal annihilation are in self-deception. He further asserts that God created man, and man, in turn, creates god, each in the other's image. He speculates that all of evolution, throughout the whole universe, is a process of consciousness, or spirit, seeking to free itself from matter. God suffers, as each finite being suffers.

This idea reminded me of the Hindu notion that God loses himself in each being, engaging in divine Lila or play by pretending to be simply the finite being, and then craving reunification with the All.

Faith and belief in God begin by wishing God exists, writes Unamuno. Thus, belief is inseparable from will. Those who do not believe in God simply do not want to believe in God. Those who believe started out by wanting to believe. It is this yearning, this fervent longing for a God who made the universe for man, and allows for immortality, which eventuates in faith. But the faith must always rest on uncertainty, lest it sink into the fanaticism of the true believer or devolve into the stodgy God idea of the rationalist theologians, which, to Unamuno' is simply a form of agnosticism or atheism.

I found his insistence on man's need to believe in his personal immortality the weakest part of his argument. I do think there a fundamental desire to believe in some form of immortality, but there is no need for it to be "personal." Indeed the insistence that it be "personal" is an egoic limitation to be transcended. Since the ego or "personality" is itself a delusion, it can only be a delusion to believe in its immortality. That is why all the great masters from Buddha to Krishna have insisted upon transcending the ego personality, because only therein lies the gateway to true immortality.

Miguel de Unamuno stops playing the same philosophical game with _The Tragic Sense of Life_.
Unamuno's agony over the significance of living is truly explored in this book, from atheism to Spanish mysticism, it will be found here.
I highly recommend this book. It is a wonderful addition to one's existentialism or philosophy of religion bookshelf.

...and a passionate philosopher who can write! It's here: the verdancy of flowers, the whiff of a woman's fine perfume....well, not exactly those, but an immense hunger for attachment to the world in which we actually live and a yearning for more, for more...I love his assessment of Descartes and his rationalist ilk: "I think, therefore I am a thinker..."

This book deserves much adulation, more than I can put in words. Miguel is a exceptionally gifted, not only in understanding the human condition, but also at communicating to his readers his perspectives and ideas. He is the least pretentious philosopher I've read, and as other have listed before me, he is a man of the here and now who isn't looking to beat around the bush. Great philosopher, get the book, it will enrich your life indefinitely!