Tragic Sense of Life (Ebook) von Miguel de Unamuno

The acknowledged masterpiece of one of Spain's most influential thinkers. Between despair and the desire for something better, Unamuno finds that "e;saving incertitude"e; that alone can console us. Dynamic appraisal of man's faith in God and in himself.

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY
AUTHORS PREFACE
I THE MAN OF FLESH AND BONE
Philososphy and the concrete man
"The man Kant, the man Butler, and the man Spinoza"
Unity and continuity of the person
Man an end not a means
Intellectual necessities and necessities of the heart and the will
Tragic sense of life in men and in peoples
II THE STARTING POINT
Tragedy of Paradise
Disease and element of progress
Necessity of knowing in order to live
Instinct of preservation and instinct of perpetuation
The sensible world and the ideal world
Practical starting-point of all philosophy--Knowledge an end in itself?
The man Descartes
The longing not to die
III THE HUNGER OF IMMORTALITY
Thirst of being
Cult of immortality
"Plato's "glorious risk"
Materialism
Paul's discourse to the Athenians
Intolerance of the intellectuals
Craving for fame
Struggle for survival
IV THE ESSENCE OF CATHOLICISM
Immortality and resurrection
Development of idea of immortality in Judaic and Hellenic religions
Paul and the dogma of the resurrection
Athanasius
Sacrament of the Eucharist
Lutheranism
The Catholic ethic
Scholasticism
The Catholic solution
V THE RATIONALIST DISSOLUTION
Materialism
Concept of substance
Substantiality of the soul
Berkeley
Myers
Spencer
Combat of life with reason
Theological advocacy
Odium anti-theologicum
The rationalist attitude
Spinoza
Nietzsche
Truth and consolation
VI IN THE DEPTHS OF THE ABYSS
Passionate doubt and Cartesian doubt
Irrationality of the problem of immortality
Will and intelligence
Vitalism and rationalism
Uncertainty as basis of faith
The ethic of despair
Pragmatical justification of despair
Summary of preceding criticism
VII "LOVE, SUFFERING, PITY, AND PERSONALITY"
Sexual love
Spiritual love
Tragic love
Love and pity
Personalizing faculty of love
God the Personalization of the All
Anthropomorphic tendency
Consciousness of the Universe
What is Truth ?
Finality of the Universe
VIII FROM GOD TO GOD
Concept and feeling of Divinity
Pantheism
Monotheism
The rational God
Proofs of God's existence
Law of necessity
Argument from Consensus genlium
The living God
Individuality and personality
God a multiplicity
The God of Reason
The God of Love
Existance of God
IX "FAITH, HOPE, AND CHARITY"
Personal element in faith
Creative power of faith
Wishing that God may exist
Hope the form of faith
Love and suffering
The suffering God
Consciousness revealed through suffering
Spiritualization of Matter
X "RELIGION, THE MYTHOLOGY OF THE BEYOND, AND THE APOCATASTASIS"
What is religion ?
The longing for immortality
Concrete representation of a future life
Beatific vision
St. Teresa
Delight requisite for happiness
Degradation of energy
Apocatastasis
Climax of the tragedy
Mystery of the Beyond
XI THE PRACTICAL PROBLEM
Conflict as basis of conduct
Injustice of annihilation
Making ourselves irreplaceable
Religious value of the civil occupation
Business of religion and religion of business
Ethic of domination
Ethic of the cloister
Passion and culture
The Spanish soul
CONCLUSION DON QUIXOTE IN THE CONTEMPORARY EUROPEAN TRAGI-COMEDY
Culture
Faust
The modern Inquisition
Spain and the scientific spirit
Cultural achievement of Spain
Thought and language
Don Quixote the hero of Spanish thought
Religion a transcendental economy
Tragic ridicule
Quixotesque philosophy
Mission of Don Quixote to-day