Beyond Philosophy

Antiquity imagines the world as something immediate and sensual, while modernity sees it coldly, abstractly, with no wonder (and consequently, no deep commitment to life, generally, or humanity, more specifically). This is an imbalance we need to address, to correct. Unamuno thinks language may offer a means for correction here, as it retains some of the old mind that produced it, a mind that imagined the world with wonder. Juan Bautista Vico, con su profunda penetración estética en el alma de la antigüedad, vió que la filosofía espontánea del hombre era hacerse regla del universo guiado por istinto d’animazione . El lenguaje, necesariamente antropomórfico, mitopeico, engendra el pensamiento. «La sabiduría poética, que fué la primera sabiduría de la gentilidad —nos dice en su Scienza Nuova — , debió comenzar por una metafísica no razonada y abstracta, cual es la de los hoy adoctrinados, sino sentida e imaginada, cual debió ser la de los primeros hombres ... Esta fué su propia poesía, ...

Seneca advises Lucilius to pursue philosophy, not philosophers, who are not themselves the quest that they have undertaken. We should seek the truth, not make idols of our fellow seekers. Adice nunc quod isti qui numquam tutelae suae fiunt primum in ea re sequuntur priores in qua nemo non a priore descivit; deinde in ea re sequuntur quae adhuc quaeritur. Numquam autem invenietur, si contenti fuerimus inventis. Praeterea qui alium sequitur nihil invenit, immo nec quaerit. Quid ergo? non ibo per priorum vestigia? ego vero utar via vetere, sed si propiorem planioremque invenero, hanc muniam. Qui ante nos ista moverunt non domini nostri sed duces sunt. Patet omnibus veritas; nondum est occupata; multum ex illa etiam futuris relictum est. Vale. Another thing for you to consider. These people who never become their own tutors trail along after predecessors in a path of discipline that everyone occupies by learning from someone more advanced. The end to which this path leads, the end that the...

The Stoic universe is one in which no objective or natural events are bad. Wickedness belongs to perception, which the Stoics conceive as necessarily individual. I perceive the world, and that is how it appears wicked, to me, sometimes, in spite of being righteous. Controlling wickedness is a matter of managing my perception, learning to respond virtuously to the bad, and the good, and the indifferent that I see everywhere around me. Ἡ τῶν ὅλων οὐσία εὐπειθὴς καὶ εὐτρεπής, ὁ δὲ ταύτην διοικῶν λόγος οὐδεμίαν ἐν ἑαυτῷ αἰτίαν ἔχει τοῦ κακοποιεῖν, κακίαν γὰρ οὐκ ἔχει· οὐδέ τι κακῶς ποιεῖ οὐδὲ βλάπτεταί τι ὑπ’ ἐκείνου. πάντα δὲ κατ’ ἐκεῖνον γίνεται καὶ περαίνεται. The material being of the universe is docile and quick to respond, and the rational principle that rules it holds in itself no occasion for doing evil, as wickedness is not something it possesses. So it does nothing badly, nor is anything every harmed by it. All things happen in accordance with this rational principle, achieving t...

Unamuno sees life and reason as being at war with one another: the first seeks ever to expand awareness that the last must limit. Philosophy exists between them, trying to reconcile them in us by rationally reducing the overwhelming input of the living world on our senses to something personal that we can relate to. Before the triumph of reason renders the world, falsely, as a totality of known facts, our mind perceives it as a living being like ourselves: a complex organism with many different members, alive in their own right, whose actions converge to create a harmonious whole. This outlook is very similar to the one history attributes to the ancient philosopher Empedocles. Compadecemos a lo semejante a nosotros, y tanto más lo compadecemos cuanto más y mejor sentimos su semejanza con nosotros. Y si esta semejanza podemos decir que provoca nuestra compasión, cabe sostener también que nuestro repuesto de compasión, pronto a derramarse sobre todo, es lo que nos hace descubrir la semej...

Seneca is not a fan of would-be philosophers who refuse to know their own lives, who dedicate themselves to memorize what others did or said instead of doing anything for themselves. Omnes itaque istos, numquam auctores, semper interpretes, sub aliena umbra latentes, nihil existimo habere generosi, numquam ausos aliquando facere quod diu didicerant. Memoriam in alienis exercuerunt; aliud autem est meminisse, aliud scire. Meminisse est rem commissam memoriae custodire; at contra scire est et sua facere quaeque nec ad exemplar pendere et totiens respicere ad magistrum. Hoc dixit Zenon, hoc Cleanthes. Aliquid inter te intersit et librum. Quousque disces? iam et praecipe. Quid est et quare audiam quod legere possum? Multum inquit viva vox facit. Non quidem haec quae alienis verbis commodatur et actuari vice fungitur. All the craven mob whose philosophy is interpretation rather than action, since they hide under the shadow of others in lieu of thinking for themselves—I judge them to la...

Don't imagine that all is lost. Keep plugging away at good activities, finding ways to enjoy the processes they engage. The world is a spinning top (or in Greek, a rhombus ). Μὴ ὁλοσχερῶς τῇ φαντασίᾳ συναρπάζεσθαι, ἀλλὰ βοηθεῖν μὲν κατὰ δύναμιν καὶ κατ’ ἀξίαν, κἂν εἰς τὰ μέσα ἐλαττῶνται, μὴ μέντοι βλάβην αὐτὸ φαντάζεσθαι· κακὸν γὰρ ἔθος. ἀλλ’ ὡς ὁ γέρων ἀπελθὼν τὸν τοῦ θρεπτοῦ ῥόμβον ἀπῄτει, μεμνημένος ὅτι ῥόμβος, οὕτως οὖν καὶ ὧδε. ἐπεί τοι γίνῃ κλαίων ἐπὶ τῶν ἐμβόλων· ἄνθρωπε, ἐπελάθου τί ταῦτα ἦν; «ναί· ἀλλὰ τούτοις περισπούδαστα.» διὰ τοῦτ’ οὖν καὶ σὺ μωρὸς γένῃ; «Ἐγενόμην ποτέ, ὁπουδήποτε καταληφθείς, εὔμοιρος ἄνθρωπος.» τὸ δὲ εὔμοιρος, ἀγαθὴν μοῖραν σεαυτῷ ἀπονείμας· ἀγαθὴ δὲ μοῖρα· ἀγαθαὶ τροπαὶ ψυχῆς, ἀγαθαὶ ὁρμαί, ἀγαθαὶ πράξεις. Never let imagination carry you away so completely from the moment that you cease to give others effective aid, according to your own real power and ability. Even if you find projects failing halfway through, don't imagine that all is lost, or...

Like a Buddhist, Unamuno locates the origin of the self in pain, which is the fundamental feeling, the root of everything we possess that can properly be called awareness. Pain shows us our limits, which inevitably draw us to contrast what we observe, our knowledge, with what we can do, our capability for action. The discrepancy between our capacity for action and our knowledge of what might be done, what might need doing, causes pain that becomes compassion, as we feel our own misery at being incapable of living forever, and forever well, and intuit that other living beings feel this, too. El dolor es el camino de la conciencia y es por él como los seres vivos llegan a tener conciencia de sí. Porque tener conciencia de sí mismo, tener personalidad, es saberse y sentirse distinto de los demás seres, y a sentir esta distinción sólo se llega por el choque, por el dolor más o menos grande, por la sensación del propio límite. La conciencia de sí mismo no es sino la conciencia de la propia ...

Live your own life. Make your own proverbs. Do your own philosophy.  Res geritur et per lineamenta sua ingenii opus nectitur ex quo nihil subduci sine ruina potest. Nec recuso quominus singula membra, dummodo in ipso homine, consideres: non est formonsa cuius crus laudatur aut brachium, sed illa cuius universa facies admirationem partibus singulis abstulit. Si tamen exegeris, non tam mendice tecum agam, sed plena manu fiet; ingens eorum turba est passim iacentium; sumenda erunt, non colligenda. Non enim excidunt sed fluunt; perpetua et inter se contexta sunt. Nec dubito quin multum conferant rudibus adhuc et extrinsecus auscultantibus; facilius enim singula insidunt circumscripta et carminis modo inclusa. Ideo pueris et sententias ediscendas damus et has quas Graeci chrias vocant, quia complecti illas puerilis animus potest, qui plus adhuc non capit. Certi profectus viro captare flosculos turpe est et fulcire se notissimis ac paucissimis vocibus et memoria stare: sibi iam innitatur...

Sometimes, the human need for information and discussion manifests badly, as a tendency to find fault with things that require no decision, or strong attitude, from us. Avoid the temptation to judge what lies outside the proper realm of your judgment. Εἰ μήτε κακία ἐστὶ τοῦτο ἐμὴ μήτε ἐνέργεια κατὰ κακίαν ἐμὴν μήτε τὸ κοινὸν βλάπτεται, τί ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ διαφέρομαι; τίς δὲ βλάβη τοῦ κοινοῦ; If a thing is not wicked unto me, nor any expression of my own wickedness, and it causes society no harm, why do I quarrel over it? Where is its harm to society?

It has been said that God is love. But what would this mean, really? Unamuno has one answer. El amor personaliza cuanto ama. Sólo cabe enamorarse de una idea personalizándola. Y cuando el amor es tan grande y tan vivo, y tan fuerte y desbordante que lo ama todo, entonces lo personaliza todo y descubre que el total Todo, que el Universo es Persona también, que tiene una Conciencia, Conciencia que a su vez sufre, compadece y ama, es decir, es conciencia. Y a esta Conciencia del Universo, que el amor descubre personalizando cuanto ama, es a lo que llamamos Dios. Y así el alma compadece a Dios y se siente por Él compadecida, le ama y se siente por Él amada, abrigando su miseria en el seno de la miseria eterna e infinita, que es al eternizarse e infinitarse la felicidad suprema misma. Dios es, pues, la personalización del Todo, es la Conciencia eterna e infinita del Universo, Conciencia presa de la materia, y luchando por libertarse de ella. Personalizamos al Todo para salvarnos de la nada,...

Seneca tells Lucilius that it is a mistake to give philosophers unique or personal credit for ideas whose real limit is necessarily larger than any singular take or expression. Having takes is fine; claiming unique authority over them is not. Zeno is not Stoicism per se, and the Stoic philosophy includes many others who owe him no fealty and express Stoic values & ethics with as much authority as he does. Seneca believes that philosophical insight is common to all of us, unclaimable by individuals. Instead of taking credit for expressions or opinions, the job of the philosopher is to handle them—to try them, to implement them, to live with them. Living mindfully is how we do philosophy. As you actually do this, as you live mindfully, you see the folly and wrongness of trying to possess or derive credit from the ideas that facilitate your life. They own you more than you can own them, and you owe it to yourself and society to avoid implying otherwise. There is no shortcut to philos...

Be good. Do good. And then let go. This is the way. Δύνασαι ἀεὶ εὐροεῖν, εἴ γε καὶ εὐοδεῖν, εἴ γε καὶ ὁδῷ ὑπολαμβάνειν καὶ πράσσειν. δύο ταῦτα κοινὰ τῇ τε τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τῇ τοῦ ἀνθρώπου καὶ παντὸς λογικοῦ ζῴου ψυχῇ· τὸ μὴ ἐμποδίζεσθαι ὑπ’ ἄλλου καὶ τὸ ἐν τῇ δικαϊκῇ διαθέσει καὶ πράξει ἔχειν τὸ ἀγαθὸν καὶ ἐνταῦθα τὴν ὄρεξιν ἀπολήγειν. You can always flow well with the current of events, if life offers free passage—if you have room to act and undertake things on the road that we must walk. Two features are common to the life we humans share with gods and all rational animals: (i) no individual is effectively impeded by the action of another, and (ii) everything good arises from cultivating a just character, expressing it in just action, and then ceasing to strive or long for anything more.

For Unamuno, the most basic human awareness conceivable is a perception of death, and of pain. Love is what we feel as we notice other beings seeing their death, feeling their pain, and liken them unto us, who also see our death, and feel its pain. Si miras al universo lo más cerca y lo más dentro que puedes mirarlo, que es en ti mismo; si sientes y no ya sólo contemplas las cosas todas en tu conciencia, donde todas ellas han dejado su dolorosa huella, llegarás al hondón del tedio, no ya de la vida, sino de algo más: al tedio de la existencia, al pozo del vanidad de vanidades. Y así es como llegarás a compadecerlo todo, al amor universal. Para amarlo todo, para compadecerlo todo, humano y extrahumano, viviente y no viviente, es menester que lo sientas todo dentro de ti mismo, que lo personalices todo. Porque el amor personaliza todo cuanto ama, todo cuanto compadece. Sólo compadecemos, es decir, amamos, lo que nos es semejante y en cuanto nos lo es, y tanto más cuanto más se nos asemej...

Seneca looks askance at Lucilius' request for great quotes. Ancient students would try to summarize philosophers in their most characteristic aphorisms, which they wanted to be as poignant and poetic as possible. Seneca thinks this approach is ultimately a mistake. Desideras his quoque epistulis sicut prioribus adscribi aliquas voces nostrorum procerum. Non fuerunt circa flosculos occupati: totus contextus illorum virilis est. Inaequalitatem scias esse ubi quae eminent notabilia sunt: non est admirationi una arbor ubi in eandem altitudinem tota silva surrexit. Eiusmodi vocibus referta sunt carmina, refertae historiae. Itaque nolo illas Epicuri existimes esse: publicae sunt et maxime nostrae, sed illo (†) magis adnotantur quia rarae interim interveniunt, quia inexspectatae, quia mirum est fortiter aliquid dici ab homine mollitiam professo. Ita enim plerique iudicant: apud me Epicurus est et fortis, licet manuleatus sit; fortitudo et industria et ad bellum prompta mens tam in Persas...

Marcus asks himself how to live, and comes up with a Stoic answer: do right by gods and man; don't aspire to exercise control over your life that you don't actually have. Don't worry about fame, or being canceled; these things are necessarily insignificant. Ὅσον οὐδέπω σποδὸς ἢ σκελετὸς καὶ ἤτοι ὄνομα ἢ οὐδὲ ὄνομα, τὸ δὲ ὄνομα ψόφος καὶ ἀπήχημα. τὰ δὲ ἐν τῷ βίῳ πολυτίμητα κενὰ καὶ σαπρὰ καὶ μικρά· καὶ κυνίδια διαδακνόμενα καὶ παιδία φιλόνεικα, γελῶντα εἶτα εὐθὺς κλαίοντα. Πίστις δὲ καὶ Αἰδὼς καὶ Δίκη καὶ Ἀλήθεια     πρὸς Ὄλυμπον ἀπὸ χθονὸς εὐρυοδείης. τί οὖν ἔτι τὸ ἐνταῦθα κατέχον, εἴ γε τὰ μὲν αἰσθητὰ εὐμετάβλητα καὶ οὐχ ἑστῶτα, τὰ δὲ αἰσθητήρια ἀμυδρὰ καὶ εὐπαρατύπωτα, αὐτὸ δὲ τὸ ψυχάριον ἀναθυμίασις ἀφ’ αἵματος, τὸ δὲ εὐδοκιμεῖν παρὰ τοιούτοις κενόν; τί οὖν; περιμένειν ἵλεων τὴν εἴτε σβέσιν εἴτε μετάστασιν· ἕως δὲ ἐκείνης ὁ καιρὸς ἐφίσταται, τί ἀρκεῖ; τί δὲ ἄλλο ἢ θεοὺς μὲν σέβειν καὶ εὐφημεῖν, ἀνθρώπους δὲ εὖ ποιεῖν καὶ ἀνέχεσθαι αὐτῶν καὶ ἀπέχεσθαι· ὅσα δὲ ἐντὸς ὅρων τ...

Proper pity for yourself is not selfish, in a bad way. It teaches you compassion for others, who like you must live in limited and limiting conditions. El amor espiritual a sí mismo, la compasión que uno cobra para consigo, podrá acaso llamarse egotismo; pero es lo más opuesto que hay al egoísmo vulgar. Porque de este amor o compasión a ti mismo, de esta intensa desesperación, porque así como antes de nacer no fuiste, así tampoco después de morir serás, pasas a compadecer, esto es, a amar a todos tus semejantes y hermanos en aparencialidad, miserables sombras que desfilan de su nada a su nada, chispas de conciencia que brillan un momento en las infinitas y eternas tinieblas. Y de los demás hombres, tus semejantes, pasando por los que más semejantes te son, por tus convivientes, vas a compadecer a todos los que viven, y hasta a lo que acaso no vive, pero existe. Aquella lejana estrella que brilla allí arriba durante la noche, se apagará algún día y se hará polvo, y dejará de brillar y d...

Seneca advises Lucilius to finish his career soon, and to be content with wealth that meets his needs rather than pursue constantly growing returns, that will never be enough or yield the kind of mental stability that comes from appreciating what you have without striving for more. According to Seneca, we should work enough to live, paying our debt to nature's necessity, and then spend our time rejoicing in contemplation of life's beauty: a good that we possess the moment we notice it. Vis scire quid sit quod faciat homines avidos futuri? nemo sibi contigit. Optaverunt itaque tibi alia parentes tui; sed ego contra omnium tibi eorum contemptum opto quorum illi copiam. Vota illorum multos compilant ut te locupletent; quidquid ad te transferunt alicui detrahendum est. Opto tibi tui facultatem, ut vagis cogitationibus agitata mens tandem resistat et certa sit, ut placeat sibi et intellectis veris bonis, quae simul intellecta sunt possidentur, aetatis adiectione non egeat. Ille demu...

Marcus here seems to encourage himself not to be troubled or confused by artless and unknowing people. His aim is to be someone who knows, who has become aware of the rational order that Stoics perceived as driving the eternal dance of our universe—eternal but still marked by ends, where the order draws distinction between one moment and the next, defining a series in time that stretches on and on, beyond any horizon we can find. Διὰ τί συγχέουσιν ἄτεχνοι καὶ ἀμαθεῖς ψυχαὶ ἔντεχνον καὶ ἐπιστήμονα; τίς οὖν ψυχὴ ἔντεχνος καὶ ἐπιστήμων; ἡ εἰδυῖα ἀρχὴν καὶ τέλος καὶ τὸν δι’ ὅλης τῆς οὐσίας διήκοντα λόγον καὶ διὰ παντὸς τοῦ αἰῶνος κατὰ περιόδους τεταγμένας οἰκονομοῦντα τὸ πᾶν. Why do artless and unlearned souls cause trouble for the soul that knows, and knows its art? What soul is possessed of art and knowledge? The one that knows the beginning and the end, understanding the rational principle that reaches through all matter and regulates everything in each age, adapting its presentation to...

According to Unamuno, love is feeling for and with things, an action that Spanish indicates using the verb compadecer , which means to show compassion, or more literally to suffer with someone. As we suffer with the world and ourselves, we recognize viscerally the limitations of mortality, and achieve an ability to love ourselves that transcends the idle admiration of what we might regard as our best qualities (superficial or profound: our health and our goodness are both subject to temporal limitation). La compasión, es, pues, la esencia del amor espiritual humano, del amor que tiene conciencia de serlo, del amor que no es puramente animal, del amor, en fin, de una persona racional. El amor compadece, y compadece más cuanto más ama. Invirtiendo el nihil volitum quin praecognitum , os dije que nihil cognitum quin praevolitum , que no se conoce nada que de un modo o de otro no se haya antes querido, y hasta cabe añadir que no se puede conocer bien nada que no se ame, que no se compad...