Beyond Philosophy

Marcus believes that we are capable of bearing all things that happen to us, even the worst disasters. He exhorts himself to find the power to press forward when life is most difficult, refusing to surrender to despair even as we lose all we hold dear. History shows us fools and people-pleasers capable of great endurance, great suffering that they do not turn to ill effect upon others. If they can do it, then the wise man must do no less. Else what use were all his wisdom? Οὐδὲν οὐδενὶ συμβαίνει ὃ οὐχὶ ἐκεῖνο πέφυκε φέρειν. ἄλλῳ τὰ αὐτὰ συμβαίνει καὶ ἤτοι ἀγνοῶν ὅτι συμβέβηκεν, ἢ ἐπιδεικνύμενος μεγαλοφροσύνην, εὐσταθεῖ καὶ ἀκάκωτος μένει. δεινὸν οὖν ἄγνοιαν καὶ ἀρέσκειαν ἰσχυροτέρας εἶναι φρονήσεως. Nothing happens to us that nature has not prepared us to bear. If you doubt this, watch how another endures what overwhelms you: see how he ignores that it ever happened, or how he remains steadfast and unbroken in spite of it, showing the greatness of his mind. It would be a terrible thing...

Unamuno quotes Leopardi's description of the heat-death of the universe, which becomes visible in starkly rational terms after modern scientists formulate the second law of thermodynamics. In imaginative terms, many ancients also contemplated the end of everything solid we know, a moment in which the world must suffer that which we call death , when it happens to us. ¿Recordáis el fin de aquel Cántico del gallo salvaje , que en prosa escribiera el desesperado Leopardi, el víctima de la razón, que no logró llegar a creer? «Tiempo llegará —dice— en que este Universo y la Naturaleza misma se habrán extinguido. Y al modo que de grandísimos reinos e imperios humanos y sus maravillosas acciones que fueron en otra edad famosísimas, no queda hoy ni señal ni fama alguna, así igualmente del mundo entero y de las infinitas vicisitudes y calamidades de las cosas creadas no quedará ni un solo vestigio, sino un silencio desnudo y una quietud profundísima llenarán el espacio inmenso. Así este ar...

Seneca concludes his epistle with a quote from Epicurus. This quote discusses the importance of personal integrity, which Seneca sees as inimical to public celebrity. Philosophy teaches us to consider arguments rather than people, truth rather than consensus, he says. To please the people, you must lose the respect of the only person who really matters: yourself. Si pudorem haberes, ultimam mihi pensionem remisisses; sed ne ego quidem me sordide geram in finem aeris alieni et tibi quod debeo impingam. Numquam volui populo placere; nam quae ego scio non probat populus, quae probat populus ego nescio. Quis hoc? inquis, tamquam nescias cui imperem. Epicurus; sed idem hoc omnes tibi ex omni domo conclamabunt, Peripatetici, Academici, Stoici, Cynici. Quis enim placere populo potest cui placet virtus? malis artibus popularis favor quaeritur. Similem te illis facias oportet: non probabunt nisi agnoverint. Multo autem ad rem magis pertinet qualis tibi videaris quam aliis; conciliari nisi tur...

Life presents many attractive opportunities we should avoid, much game that it would be folly to hunt. How do the wise learn to distinguish between what we should and shouldn't chase? What do you think Marcus would say?  Τὸ τὰ ἀδύνατα διώκειν μανικόν· ἀδύνατον δὲ τὸ τοὺς φαύλους μὴ τοιαῦτά τινα ποιεῖν. Pursuing impossible things is insane, but fools cannot help doing it anyway.

If we allow our faith in personal immortality to triumph over our reason, which would deny it, what then will we conceive our immortality to be? How will we confront the fact that we have no rational expectation of what is essentially an irrational imagination? Unamuno confronts this question. Y la más fuerte base de la incertidumbre, lo que más hace vacilar nuestro deseo vital, lo que más eficacia da a la obra disolvente de la razón, es el ponernos a considerar lo que podría ser una vida del alma después de la muerte. Porque, aun venciendo, por un poderoso esfuerzo de fe, a la razón que nos dice y enseña que el alma no es sino una función del cuerpo organizado, queda luego el imaginarnos que pueda ser una vida inmortal y eterna del alma. En esta imaginación las contradicciones y los absurdos se multiplican y se llega, acaso, a la conclusión de Kierkegaard, y es que si es terrible la mortalidad del alma, no menos terrible es su inmortalidad. Pero vencida la primera dificultad, la única...

Seneca advises Lucilius not to count every little thing that might kill us. We must meet mortal threats one by one, moment by moment. There is no such thing as fighting them all at once, in every moment. Dum me illi paro, tu interim, qui potes, qui intellegis, unde quo evaseris, et ex eo suspica n s quousque sis evasurus, compone mores tuos, attolle animum, adversus formidata consiste; numerare eos noli qui tibi metum faciunt. Nonne videatur stultus, si quis multitudinem eo loco timeat per quem transitus singulis est? aeque ad tuam mortem multis aditus non est licet illam multi minentur. Sic istuc natura disposuit: spiritum tibi tam unus eripiet quam unus dedit. While I prepare to handle Marcellinus, your job is to stand firm against the forces threatening your life. Compose yourself, and rouse your mind. Remember that you are capable and alert, and look for the right moment to make your move beyond the enemy's grasp. Don't count every mortal foe that stirs your fear. Wouldn...

Marcus exhorts himself to imagine the life, and character, he desires to present. We live by imagining and then acting upon our imagination, which is shared with others like us, in our case. This capacity for creating and imparting to others manifests ultimately in shared understanding, or (in Stoic terms familiar to Marcus) logos. Unamuno echoes this take on reason ( razón, ratio ) in Life 2.6 . Οἷα ἂν πολλάκις φαντασθῇς, τοιαύτη σοι ἔσται ἡ διάνοια· βάπτεται γὰρ ὑπὸ τῶν φαντασιῶν ἡ ψυχή. βάπτε οὖν αὐτὴν τῇ συνεχείᾳ τῶν τοιούτων φαντασιῶν· οἷον, ὅτι ὅπου ζῆν ἐστιν, ἐκεῖ καὶ εὖ ζῆν· ἐν αὐλῇ δὲ ζῆν ἐστιν· ἔστιν ἄρα καὶ εὖ ζῆν ἐν αὐλῇ. Καὶ πάλιν, ὅτι οὗπερ ἕνεκεν ἕκαστον κατεσκεύασται, πρὸς τοῦτο κατεσκεύασται· πρὸς ὃ δὲ κατεσκεύασται, πρὸς τοῦτο φέρεται· πρὸς ὃ φέρεται δέ, ἐν τούτῳ τὸ τέλος αὐτοῦ· ὅπου δὲ τὸ τέλος, ἐκεῖ καὶ τὸ συμφέρον καὶ τὸ ἀγαθὸν ἑκάστου· τὸ ἄρα ἀγαθὸν τοῦ λογικοῦ ζῴου κοινωνία. ὅτι γὰρ πρὸς κοινωνίαν γεγόναμεν, πάλαι δέδεικται· ἢ οὐκ ἦν ἐναργὲς ὅτι τὰ χείρω τῶν κρε...

Unamuno does not want to discuss doubt and hope in political or even ethical terms. What he is most interested in is our existential feeling: how do we handle not knowing the outcome of our life? ¿Y qué sino la incertidumbre, la duda, la voz de la razón era el abismo, el gouffre terrible ante el que temblaba Pascal? Y ello fué lo que le llevó a formular su terrible sentencia: il faut s’abêtir , ¡hay que entontecerse! Todo el jansenismo, adaptación católica del calvinismo, lleva este mismo sello. Aquel Port Royal que se debía a un vasco, el abate de Saint-Cyran, vasco como Íñigo de Loyola, y como el que estas líneas traza, lleva siempre en su fondo un sedimento de desesperación religiosa, de suicidio de la razón. También Íñigo la mató en la obediencia. Por desesperación se afirma, por desesperación se niega, y por ella se abstiene uno de afirmar y de negar. Observad a los más de nuestros ateos, y veréis que lo son por rabia, por rabia de no poder creer que haya Dios. Son enemigos per...

Seneca shares his plan for approaching Marcellinus, a friend with some obnoxious habits that Seneca would like him to lose. He imagines how the conversation between himself and Marcellinus will go: Marcellinus will avoid all Seneca's appeals to philosophy by pointing out the historical existence of morally corrupt philosophers. Seneca will persist in recommending reform, and the issue of the conversation will be that Marcellinus is at least no worse, & maybe better, than before. Marcellinum nostrum ego nondum despero; etiam nunc servari potest, sed si cito illi manus porrigitur. Est quidem periculum ne porrigentem trahat; magna in illo ingeni vis est, sed iam tendentis in pravum. Nihilominus adibo hoc periculum et audebo illi mala sua ostendere. Faciet quod solet: advocabit illas facetias quae risum evocare lugentibus possunt, et in se primum, deinde in nos iocabitur; omnia quae dicturus sum occupabit. Scrutabitur scholas nostras et obiciet philosophis congiaria, amicas, gulam;...

What is humanity? Marcus would say that any action involving what is good (noble, virtuous, worthy) is properly human. If there is no nobility, no virtue, no worth inherent in some action that becomes uniquely pleasing or evident when that action is performed by us, by humans, then the action is beneath our attention. It might be necessary, or pleasant, but it is not a thing worth our devotion. It is not humane, and whatever value or purpose it serves is not properly humanity. Οὐδὲν τούτων τηρητέον ἀνθρώπῳ, ἃ ἀνθρώπῳ, καθὸ ἄνθρωπός ἐστιν, οὐκ ἐπιβάλλει. οὐκ ἔστιν ἀπαιτήματα ἀνθρώπου οὐδὲ ἐπαγγέλλεται αὐτὰ ἡ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου φύσις οὐδὲ τελειότητές εἰσι τῆς τοῦ ἀνθρώπου φύσεως. οὐ τοίνυν οὐδὲ τὸ τέλος ἐν αὐτοῖς ἐστι τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ κείμενον οὐδέ γε τὸ συμπληρωτικὸν τοῦ τέλους, τὸ ἀγαθόν. ἔτι, εἴ τι τούτων ἦν ἐπιβάλλον τῷ ἀνθρώπῳ, οὐκ ἂν τὸ ὑπερφρονεῖν αὐτῶν καὶ κατεξανίστασθαι ἐπιβάλλον ἦν οὐδὲ ἐπαινετὸς ἦν ὁ ἀπροσδεῆ τούτων ἑαυτὸν παρεχόμενος, οὐδ’ ἂν ὁ ἐλαττωτικὸς ἑαυτοῦ ἔν τινι τούτων ἀγαθὸς ἦ...

Real faith must not avoid uncertainty, Unamuno says. But foolish faith will do so, and so will foolish doubt, the kind of doubt that is incapable of doubting itself. The human condition is one that necessarily copes with radical uncertainty, no matter what position any of us takes within or against it. Atormentado Augusto Hermann Francke por torturadoras dudas, decidió invocar a Dios, a un Dios en que no creía ya, o en quien más bien creía no creer, para que tuviese piedad de él, del pobre pietista Francke, si es que existía. Y un estado análogo de ánimo es el que me inspiró aquel soneto titulado «La oración del ateo», que en mi Rosario de sonetos líricos figura y termina así:                           Sufro yo a tu costa,       Dios no existente, pues si tú existieras       existiría yo también de veras. Sí, si existiera el Dios garantizador de nuestra inmortalidad personal, entonces existi...

Seneca discusses the problem of advice. What is the best way to give it? Lucilius likes to be generous, but Seneca prefers to ration more carefully. De Marcellino nostro quaeris et vis scire quid agat. Raro ad nos venit, non ulla alia ex causa quam quod audire verum timet, a quo periculo iam abest; nulli enim nisi audituro dicendum est. Ideo de Diogene nec minus de aliis Cynicis qui libertate promiscua usi sunt et obvios monuerunt, dubitari solet, an hoc facere debuerint. Quid enim, si quis surdos obiurget aut natura morbove mutos? Quare inquis verbis parcam? gratuita sunt. Non possum scire an ei profuturus sim quem admoneo: illud scio, alicui me profuturum, si multos admonuero. Spargenda manus est: non potest fieri ut non aliquando succedat multa temptanti. Hoc, mi Lucili, non existimo magno viro faciendum: diluitur eius auctoritas nec habet apud eos satis ponderis quos posset minus obsolefacta corrigere. S agittarius non aliquando ferire debet, sed aliquando deerrare; non est ars qu...

Reason's power lies in seeing the end from the beginning: it measures our life in terms of foreseen mortality. As we act and accumulate experience with living, our reason naturally marks how we should behave in future to avoid suffering our mortality too soon. But we know that we must suffer it eventually, and then it will be impossible to avoid or overcome. The precise method and manner of our final encounter with death are unknown, irrational, but the best practical means of approaching that encounter will be available to our reason as memories of past actions undertaken and finished. When we meet death the last time, it will not be the first time we have ever seen him. We will be able to surrender and end our journey at peace, recognizing the rational kinship the unites this final end with all the other ones before it. That is how I read the following meditation from Marcus. Ὁ λόγος καὶ ἡ λογικὴ τέχνη δυνάμεις εἰσὶν ἑαυταῖς ἀρκούμεναι καὶ τοῖς καθ’ αὑτὰς ἔργοις. ὁρμῶνται μὲν οὖν...

Unamuno illustrates the great power of doubt and hope together, using the New Testament and the story of Don Quijote to show how their mutual strife is an essential part of healthy humanity.  Belief and unbelief: humanity must hold both together, and struggle with them. Our life is in the struggle. En el cap. IX del Evangelio según Marcos, se nos cuenta cómo llevó uno a Jesús a ver a su hijo preso de un espíritu mudo, que dondequiera le cogiese le despedazaba, haciéndole echar espumarajos, crujir de dientes e irse secando, por lo cual quería presentárselo para que le curara. Y el Maestro, impaciente de aquellos hombres que no querían sino milagros y señales, exclamó: «¡Oh generación infiel! ¿hasta cuándo estaré con vosotros? ¿hasta cuándo os tengo de sufrir? ¡Traédmele!» (v. 19), y se lo trajeron; le vió el Maestro revolcándose por tierra, preguntó a su padre cuánto tiempo hacía de aquéllo, contestóle éste que desde que era su hijo niño, y Jesús le dijo: «Si puedes creer, al que cr...

Seneca concludes his epistle with an anecdote about Socrates, and an aphorism from Epicurus (as usual). The closing analogy: Lucilius is invited to hold court against himself in his own mind, prosecuting his moral failures first, then judging them, and finally pleading in his own defense. Triginta inqui s tyranni Socraten circumsteterunt nec potuerunt animum eius infringere. Quid interest quot domini sint? servitus una est; hanc qui contempsit in quanta libet turba dominantium liber est. Tempus est desinere, sed si prius portorium solvero . Initium est salutis notitia peccati. Egregie mihi hoc dixisse videtur Epicurus; nam qui peccare se nescit corrigi non vult; deprehendas te oportet antequam emendes. Quidam vitiis gloriantur: tu existimas aliquid de remedio cogitare qui mala sua virtutum loco numerant? Ideo quantum potes te ipse coargue, inquire in te; accusatoris primum partibus fungere, deinde iudicis, novissime deprecatoris; aliquando te offende. Vale. “ The thirty tyrants surrou...

Marcus witnesses that he is part of the universe, a momentary effect of past causes that becomes itself cause for future effects, whose birth will eventually entail its own unmaking. This is mortality, for us, but we cannot see the mortality of the universe as clearly as we see our own: to us, the universe appears as an endless succession of causes and effects, worlds without end. Ἐξ αἰτιώδους καὶ ὑλικοῦ συνέστηκα, οὐδέτερον δὲ τούτων εἰς τὸ μὴ ὂν φθαρήσεται, ὥσπερ οὐδὲ ἐκ τοῦ μὴ ὄντος ὑπέστη. οὐκοῦν καταταχθήσεται πᾶν μέρος ἐμὸν κατὰ μεταβολὴν εἰς μέρος τι τοῦ κόσμου καὶ πάλιν ἐκεῖνο εἰς ἕτερον μέρος τι τοῦ κόσμου μεταβαλεῖ καὶ ἤδη εἰς ἄπειρον. κατὰ τοιαύτην δὲ μεταβολὴν κἀγὼ ὑπέστην καὶ οἱ ἐμὲ γεννήσαντες καὶ ἐπανιόντι εἰς ἄλλο ἄπειρον. οὐδὲν γὰρ κωλύει οὕτως φάναι, κἂν κατὰ περιόδους πεπερασμένας ὁ κόσμος διοικῆται. I am a creature made of form and matter, cause and effect. Neither of these twain will decompose into nothing, just as neither of them takes its existence from nothing. ...