Enjoy the Flesh of your Soul !!. Review on Tragic Sense Of Life - Miguel De Unamuno

What would you get if you were to inject Brutus' stoicism with a dash of Irish humour. Something like - "Begorra maam, heaven be praisd for thys sufferin. I've bin sufferin so much that if ye hit me back, ye'd see the sufferin flyin' out ov me mouth!"

Philosophy can be ever so humourous with Miguel de Unamuno around. This may sound like undermining the seriousness of his works but believe me its a good starting point. Maybe this likening has its seeds in Unamuno's treatment of the ideal of Don Quixote in "The Tragic Sense of Life" in the way he did.

Don Unamuno was a Spanish philosopher, essayist, novelist and poet as also the leading intellectual voice for his country during the turn of the twentieth Century. "The Tragic Sense of Life", originally written in Spanish was translated to English by J.E. Crawford Flitch, under the scrutiny of Unamuno himself. The author points out in his Preface that the English translation is the purest form of this work - errors, obscurities, and incorrect quotes appearing in the original, being suitably taken care of.

The Book consists of a dozen essays which explore the ideas of Man as being made up of concrete "flesh & bones", the one-ness of body & soul (Monism ??), his instinct of preservation & perpetuation, the will to live, the cult/hunger for immortality, types of Love, Theism, proof of God, Faith, Suffering (with a capital S) and the Quixotic way of Life and its philosophy. While doing so he examines the postulates of Catholicism and the Hellenic Religions as also post mortems the theories of Kant, Spinoza, Plato, Nietzsche, etc. You can skip parts of the book dealing with the post mortem of ancient philosophers and their philosophies (like I did) as it tends to get a tad pedagogical sometimes.

Unamuno's reading of the history of Philosophy is truly impressive and at once reminiscent of the "History of Western Philosophy" (by Russell) for its extensiveness. The fact that he treats all major philosophies/philosophers before propounding his own is equally impressive.

The central and dominant theme of the book is suffering and the then almost ironical desire to avoid death. More the suffering, more the desire to avoid Death and more the thirst for Life. This is the state that pushes Man to stretch himself to gain more out of every moment as if Life is an infinite List of TO-DOs while very little time to do it. I'm surprised Capitalists havent pounced upon his literature and freely distributed it to further their cause.

Unamuno's rejection of Reason/intellect itself is very interesting. His Reason is unable to rise beyond scepticism, therefore offering very little practical utility. He says suffering leads to self-Pity, Pity to Compassion and Compassion to self-love. This self-love translates into love of all Beings Living and eventually the hunger for immortality. Which in turn results in giving a soul to the Universe - God ! Faith provides the much needed stimulus for living Life and is therefore more admissible. This also gives his Philosophy a religious basis.

While he appears every bit Individualistic in his approach, Unamuno is not an exponent of the Capitalists' Individualism. Rather, he's an example of Individualism as the necessary tool for gathering experience and dwelling into the origin and purpose of mankind.

Unamuno uses Don Quixote as the symbol of his spiritualism. Symbolic in many ways of Man's proclivity for abstract theory leading to intense suffering and in turn giving way to the desire to live life, especially towards the end of his career. And the Humour when it comes is equally Quixotic too. As in the instance when he relates Living to enjoying the flesh of one's own soul.

The philosophy of Unamuno is very Utilitarian in its approach. Therein lies its biggest merit and perhaps, demerit too. In many ways the philosophy is not his own. It belongs to his race, the Basque. It is the manifestation of years of native training that his race has undertaken over centuries. The biggest appeal is its not a philosophy made in laboratory like so many others. Its a philosophy that is the upshot of living life guided by one's own passions (though not consumed by them) and one's own free will. His is not the philosophy of abstract theories, its that of "flesh and bone" (to use his phrase) and that of doing rather than imagining.

The Irishman above was asked to summarize Unamuno in his trademark native wit and this is what he had to say :- "Heya Maria, thees Gentlemon sez sufferin is all there is to Life. 'Pon me ward, if this wer true, Oi hav bin Livin hansomely all me Life vidhout knowin it..."

PS - Review dedicated to Nair Sir who recommended the Book. Had to buy a laptop holder just to read the book. The Book however, was free !