Tragic Sense of Life

Rating:
Summary: thank heavens for a passionate philosophy...
Review: ...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..."

Rating:
Summary: A great book...
Review: 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...

Rating:
Summary: men of flesh and bone
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: A great book...
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Catholic apologist
Review: The tragic sense of life is the realization that we will die. This could lead to an existentialist exploration - how can we continue, since in the beginning is the end - but Fra Unamuno prefers to deny that we do in fact die. Railing against the "Jewish" philosopher Spinoza and Protestant theologians for being too rational, he extols the Catholic faith. This is a delightful absurdity, given Catholicism's reliance on Aquinas' scholastic philosophy, which, in its attempts at rational proofs of the existence of God and the immortality of the soul serves only to prove that medieval monasteries lacked fresh air and the smell of women. Unamuno, good friar that he is, confuses the natural desire not to die with a desire to live forever, not for a moment considering what that means. To continue as he is forever - but how is he? Aging, suffering loss of memory, loss of concentration, loss of, well, everything, as the brain winds down. All that increases is guilt and remorse as the pain of things done and undone grows. To continue that course forever? That cannot be eternity in God's presence - it can only be death without God.

Rating:
Summary: The Eternal struggle between Faith and Reason
Review: This is the Masterpiece of the greatest fideist of the 20th century. The conflict between faith and reason is the greatest conflict of the human psyche in my opinion and this book is a testament to that assertion