Beyond Philosophy

Aristotle remarks that the city belongs to mankind, to man the political animal, but that beyond its limits we encounter the realm of beasts and gods. An emperor, like Marcus Aurelius, necessarily lives beyond city limits (though he occupies them in space betimes). Many of us modern folk are too quick to think that Aristotle's humanity must be ours, merely because we inhabit an urban geography. To the extent that we serve empire in any material capacity, we are actually much closer to Marcus. Social media is certainly a realm of beasts and gods. Ἐντὸς δέκα ἡμερῶν θεὸς αὐτοῖς τούτοις δόξεις οἷς νῦν θηρίον καὶ πίθηκος, ἐὰν ἀνακάμψῃς ἐπὶ τὰ δόγματα καὶ τὸν σεβασμὸν τοῦ λόγου. In the space of ten days, you will appear a god to the same people who see you now as beast and ape, if you can bend yourself to fit their opinions and show proper respect for their reasoning.

Unamuno continues discussing the difference between Lutheran Protestant ism, with its emphasis on rational ethics, and Catholicism, with its irrational orientation towards eternal life. En la primera edición de los Loci communes , de Melanchton, la de 1521, la primera obra teológica luterana, omite su autor las especulaciones trinitaria y cristológica, la base dogmática de la escatología. Y el Dr. Hermann, profesor en Marburgo, el autor del libro sobre el comercio del cristiano con Dios ( Der Verkehr des Christen mit Gott ), libro cuyo primer capítulo trata de la oposición entre la mística y la religión cristiana, y que es, en sentir de Harnack, el más perfecto manual luterano, nos dice en otra parte, refiriéndose a esa especulación cristológica —o atanasiana—, que «el conocimiento efectivo de Dios y de Cristo en que vive la fe es algo enteramente distinto. No debe hallar lugar en la doctrina cristiana nada que no pueda ayudar al hombre a reconocer sus pecados, lograr la gracia de D...

The irony of pleasure: if you are always inundated with it, then it loses the ability to move you. Deprivation allows you to appreciate and recognize what is missing. Deprivation is pleasant. Train yourself to notice this, so that when you are deprived, you do not feel depressed. Non est tamen quare tu multum tibi facere videaris. Facies enim quod multa milia servorum, multa milia pauperum faciunt; illo nomine te suspice, quod facies non coactus, quod tam facile erit tibi illud pati semper quam aliquando experiri. Exerceamur ad palum, et ne imparatos fortuna deprehendat, fiat nobis paupertas familiaris; securius divites erimus si scierimus quam non sit grave pauperes esse. Certos habebat dies ille magister voluptatis Epicurus quibus maligne famem exstingueret, visurus an aliquid deesset ex plena et consummata voluptate, vel quantum deesset, et an dignum quod quis magno labore pensaret. Hoc certe in iis epistulis ait quas scripsit Charino magistratu ad Polyaenum; et quidem gloriatur non...

Nature will have her way, and in her own time, not ours. Πολλὰ λιβανωτοῦ βωλάρια ἐπὶ τοῦ αὐτοῦ βωμοῦ· τὸ μὲν προκατέπεσεν, τὸ δ’ ὕστερον, διαφέρει δ’ οὐδέν. Many little lumps of frankincense lie on the same altar. One falls now, another later, and it makes no difference.

Unamuno sees Catholicism maintaining an ancient commitment to communion and community that Protestants lose, in part because they focus too much on rational ethics, which belong properly to individuals (rather than groups) and to this world (rather than any other). He finds minimal room for heroic self-sacrifice in forms of religion which allow themselves to become simply ethical (a matter of finding the right, sensible thing and doing it, with no fuss or tragedy). His Catholics are religious because they must confront the tragedy of life being inherently unsolved and insoluble, and they rise to that challenge sacramentally, ritually—in the context of a living tradition that never achieves a perfectly rational ethic like Kant's categorical imperative. Communion with Christ, on Unamuno's reading, requires a social unity or integrity that defies the ability of any individual among us to capture with reason, or express with any singular ethic separated from all others by shared re...

Seneca advises Lucilius to practice deprivation. If you can go without something, making do happily in its absence, then you have nothing to fear from it—and can enjoy its occasional presence with less anxiety about the future or nostalgia for the past. Ceterum adeo mihi placet temptare animi tui firmitatem ut e praecepto magnorum virorum tibi quoque praecipiam: interponas aliquot dies quibus contentus minimo ac vilissimo cibo, dura atque horrida veste, dicas tibi hoc est quod timebatur? In ipsa securitate animus ad difficilia se praeparet et contra iniurias fortunae inter beneficia firmetur. Miles in media pace decurrit, sine ullo hoste vallum iacit, et supervacuo labore lassatur ut sufficere necessario possit; quem in ipsa re trepidare nolueris, ante rem exerceas. Hoc secuti sunt qui omnibus mensibus paupertatem imitati prope ad inopiam accesserunt, ne umquam expavescerent quod saepe didicissent. Non est nunc quod existimes me dicere Timoneas cenas et pauperum cellas et quidquid al...

Life is a journey back to Nature, our father and mother, with reasons beyond ours. Our reason is just a little piece of the great reason of the universe, a small echo of the cosmic Word. Ἐνυπέστης ὡς μέρος. ἐναφανισθήσῃ τῷ γεννήσαντι· μᾶλλον δὲ ἀναληφθήσῃ εἰς τὸν λόγον αὐτοῦ τὸν σπερματικὸν κατὰ μεταβολήν. You have existed heretofore only in part, a piece cut from the whole that produced you. But you will return to that whole eventually, disappearing into it. In other words: you will be absorbed by the cosmic reason that sows itself throughout the universe with every change.

Does religion come before or after ethics? Unamuno thinks that Catholicism puts religion before ethics, while Protestantism does the reverse. So Catholic worship is first a cult of immortality, within which we then seek to find good ethics, while Protestant worship is first a cult of justice (i.e. good ethics), within which we then look to find some good religion (and immortality). Es el sacramento genuinamente realista , dinglich, que se diría en alemán, y que no es gran violencia traducir material, el sacramento más genuinamente ex opere operato, sustituído entre los protestantes con el sacramento idealista de la palabra. Trátase, en el fondo, y lo digo con todo el posible respeto, pero sin querer sacrificar la expresividad de la frase, de comerse y beberse a Dios, al Eternizador, de alimentarse de Él. ¿Qué mucho, pues, que nos diga Santa Teresa que cuando estando en la Encarnación el segundo año que tenía el priorato, octava de San Martín, comulgando, partió la Forma el padre fra...

Seneca doesn't want to party too hard over the holidays. Keep something back. Don't use all the license others give you; it won't end well.       December est mensis: cum maxime civitas sudat. Ius luxuriae publicae datum est; ingenti apparatu sonant omnia, tamquam quicquam inter Saturnalia intersit et dies rerum agendarum; adeo nihil interest ut videatur (‡) mihi errasse qui dixit olim mensem Decembrem fuisse, nunc annum. Si te hic haberem, libenter tecum conferrem quid existimares esse faciendum, utrum nihil ex cotidiana consuetudine movendum an, ne dissidere videremur cum publicis moribus, et hilarius cenandum et exuendam togam. Nam quod fieri nisi in tumultu et tristi tempore civitatis non solebat, voluptatis causa ac festorum dierum vestem mutavimus. Si te bene novi, arbitri partibus functus nec per omnia nos similes esse pilleatae turbae voluisses nec per omnia dissimiles; nisi forte his maxime diebus animo imperandum est, ut tunc voluptatibus solus ab...

Reason solves problems, but like any solvent it can be dangerous. Make sure to taste your own reason's medicine, to avoid spreading it too liberally or carelessly beyond the realm that is yours. Never try to solve for others what can only be solved by the self. «Λόγον ἔχεις;» «ἔχω.» «τί οὖν οὐ χρᾷ; τούτου γὰρ τὸ ἑαυτοῦ ποιοῦντος τί ἄλλο θέλεις;» Q. "Have you a faculty for rational judgement?" A. "I do." Q. "Why then do you not use it? If it is already employed looking after itself, what more do you want?"