Beyond Philosophy

Marcus advises himself to avoid attributing value to things that are unnecessary to life. Placing great value on excellence that goes beyond what nature requires makes it harder to be content with having our real needs met. We want to do our best work, and then be happy with that. Not wishing it to be better than our need, nor caring what others make of it in the markets. Οὔτε τὸ διαπνεῖσθαι ὡς τὰ φυτὰ τίμιον οὔτε τὸ ἀναπνεῖν ὡς τὰ βοσκήματα καὶ τὰ θηρία οὔτε τὸ τυποῦσθαι κατὰ φαντασίαν οὔτε τὸ νευροσπαστεῖσθαι καθ’ ὁρμὴν οὔτε τὸ συναγελάζεσθαι οὔτε τὸ τρέφεσθαι· τοῦτο γὰρ ὅμοιον τῷ ἀποκρίνειν τὰ περιττώματα τῆς τροφῆς. τί οὖν τίμιον; τὸ κροτεῖσθαι; οὐχί. οὐκοῦν οὐδὲ τὸ ὑπὸ γλωσσῶν κροτεῖσθαι· αἱ γὰρ παρὰ τῶν πολλῶν εὐφημίαι κρότος γλωσσῶν. ἀφῆκας οὖν καὶ τὸ δοξάριον· τί καταλείπεται τίμιον; δοκῶ μὲν τὸ κατὰ τὴν ἰδίαν κατασκευὴν κινεῖσθαι καὶ ἴσχεσθαι, ἐφ’ ὃ καὶ αἱ ἐπιμέλειαι ἄγουσι καὶ αἱ τέχναι· ἥ τε γὰρ τέχνη πᾶσα τούτου στοχάζεται, ἵνα τὸ κατασκευασθὲν ἐπιτηδείως ἔχῃ πρὸς τὸ ἔργον ...

Unamuno begins his chapter on God by proposing to examine the concept of divinity. What experiences show us divinity? Unamuno believes that our experience and understanding of divinity is necessarily social (communal, shared) before it becomes personal (private, unique). Approaching divinity requires us to engage society before we look at ourselves. No creo que sea violentar la verdad el decir que el sentimiento religioso es sentimiento de divinidad, y que sólo con violencia del corriente lenguaje humano puede hablarse de religión atea. Aunque es claro que todo dependerá del concepto que de Dios nos formemos. Concepto que depende a su vez del de divinidad. Conviénenos, en efecto, comenzar por el sentimiento de divinidad, antes de mayusculizar el concepto de esta cualidad, y, articulándola, convertirla en la Divinidad, esto es, en Dios. Porque el hombre ha ido a Dios por lo divino más bien que ha deducido lo divino de Dios. Ya antes, en el curso de estas algo errabundas y a la par insis...

Seneca thanks Lucilius for writing letters to him, taking a moment to appreciate the significance he finds in reading over something his friend wrote on purpose, with him in mind. There is something special about letters written deliberately to you, by someone who cares. Quod frequenter mihi scribis gratias ago; nam quo uno modo potes te mihi ostendis. Numquam epistulam tuam accipio ut non protinus una simus. Si imagines nobis amicorum absentium iucundae sunt, quae memoriam renovant et desiderium absentiae falso atque inani solacio levant, quanto iucundiores sunt litterae, quae vera amici absentis vestigia, veras notas afferunt? Nam quod in conspectu dulcissimum est, id amici manus epistulae impressa praestat, agnoscere. I give you thanks for writing to me regularly. Your letters show me what you can do, providing a window into the world of possibility that is your life. I never receive an epistle from you without feeling immediately that we are once more together. If pictures of absen...

Life is a river of events, and we must ride its tides. We will not control what lies beyond our power. Τὰ μὲν σπεύδει γίνεσθαι, τὰ δὲ σπεύδει γεγονέναι, καὶ τοῦ γινομένου δὲ ἤδη τι ἀπέσβη· ῥύσεις καὶ ἀλλοιώσεις ἀνανεοῦσι τὸν κόσμον διηνεκῶς, ὥσπερ τὸν ἄπειρον αἰῶνα ἡ τοῦ χρόνου ἀδιάλειπτος φορὰ νέον ἀεὶ παρέχεται. ἐν δὴ τούτῳ τῷ ποταμῷ, ἐφ’ οὗ στῆναι οὐκ ἔξεστιν, τί ἄν τις τούτων τῶν παραθεόντων ἐκτιμήσειεν; ὥσπερ εἴ τίς τι τῶν παραπετομένων στρουθαρίων φιλεῖν ἄρχοιτο, τὸ δ’ ἤδη ἐξ ὀφθαλμῶν ἀπελήλυθεν. τοιοῦτον δή τι καὶ αὐτὴ ἡ ζωὴ ἑκάστου, οἷον ἡ ἀφ’ αἵματος ἀναθυμίασις καὶ ἡ ἐκ τοῦ ἀέρος ἀνάπνευσις· ὁποῖον γάρ ἐστι τὸ ἅπαξ ἑλκύσαι τὸν ἀέρα καὶ ἀποδοῦναι, ὅπερ παρ’ ἕκαστον ποιοῦμεν, τοιοῦτόν ἐστι καὶ τὸ τὴν πᾶσαν ἀναπνευστικὴν δύναμιν, ἣν χθὲς καὶ πρῴην ἀποτεχθεὶς ἐκτήσω, ἀποδοῦναι ἐκεῖ ὅθεν τὸ πρῶτον ἔσπασας. Some events hasten to begin, and others to be done, and occasionally one will end even as it is just beginning. The ebb and flow of events renews the world continually, even as ...

Unamuno concludes this chapter emphasizing the idea that we need God, and make him, to feel purpose that extends beyond ourselves, that cannot be reduced to some merely material end. Es tal nuestro anhelo de salvar a la conciencia, de dar finalidad personal y humana al Universo y a la existencia, que hasta en un supremo, dolorosísimo y desgarrador sacrificio llegaríamos a oir que se nos dijese que si nuestra conciencia se desvanece es para ir a enriquecer la Conciencia infinita y eterna, que nuestras almas sirven de alimento al Alma Universal. Enriquezco, sí, a Dios, porque antes de yo existir no me pensaba como existente, porque soy uno más, uno más aunque sea entre infinitos, que como habiendo vivido y sufrido y amado realmente, quedo en su seno. Es el furioso anhelo de dar finalidad al Universo, de hacerle consciente y personal, lo que nos ha llevado a creer en Dios, a querer que haya Dios, a crear a Dios, en una palabra. ¡A crearle, sí! Lo que no debe escandalizar se diga ni al más...

What is moral depravity? Seneca argues that it is lacking natural limits for our desires. Without natural limits, we want things that are too much, too large, too unbalanced to be good for us. Over time, having too much will manifest as a permanent shift in our habits and character that causes us to want excess as a rule, as though it were good and necessary (i.e. virtuous), though it is not. Philosophy should teach us to want only what is needed, naturally, not what is excessive, though it appear desirable. Qui hostis in quemquam tam contumeliosus fuit quam in quosdam voluptates suae sunt? quorum impotentiae atque insanae libidini ob hoc unum possis ignoscere, quod quae fecere patiuntur. Nec immerito hic illos furor vexat; necesse est enim in immensum exeat cupiditas quae naturalem modum transilit. Ille enim habet suum finem, inania et ex libidine orta sine termino sunt. Necessaria metitur utilitas: supervacua quo redigis? Voluptatibus itaque se mergunt quibus in consuetudinem adducti...

Our lives are series of events. These exist & persist for us, in our minds at least, as we perceive them & find ways to remember what we have perceived. Material events without any animal motivation that we see become expressions of nature or divinity, which gives birth to myriad physical compounds that lack overt animal intelligence. Events with clear animal motivation appear different: Marcus says that they involve soul. The rational soul, a soul like ours, conceives events in its life as occasions for deploying skill and logic together, drawing on practice and inference from what it has learned in times past. Note that Marcus makes every rational skill something social: we develop & deploy it in concert with other people. Τὰ πλεῖστα, ὧν ἡ πληθὺς θαυμάζει, εἰς γενικώτατα ἀνάγεται τὰ ὑπὸ ἕξεως ἢ φύσεως συνεχόμενα, λίθους, ξύλα, συκᾶς, ἀμπέλους, ἐλαίας· τὰ δὲ ὑπὸ τῶν ὀλίγῳ μετριωτέρων εἰς τὰ ὑπὸ ψυχῆς, οἷον ποίμνας, ἀγέλας ἢ κατὰ ψιλὸν τὸ πλῆθος ἀνδραπόδων κεκτῆσθαι. τὰ δὲ ...

Unamuno presents a deist version of the philosophical outlook that views the universe as a simulation. Are we all thoughts in the mind of God? Might he be the great awareness that hosts our personal existence as an indelible part of its eternal memory? ¿No es que acaso vivimos y amamos, esto es, sufrimos y compadecemos en esa Gran Persona envolvente a todos, las personas todas que sufrimos y compadecemos y los seres todos que luchan por personalizarse, por adquirir conciencia de su dolor y de su limitación? ¿Y no somos acaso ideas de esa Gran Conciencia total que al pensarnos existentes nos da la existencia? ¿No es nuestro existir ser por Dios percibidos y sentidos? Y más adelante nos dice este mismo visionario, a su manera imaginativa, que cada ángel, cada sociedad de ángeles y el cielo todo contemplado de consuno, se presentan en forma humana, y que por virtud de esta su humana forma, lo rige el Señor como a un solo hombre. «Dios no piensa, crea; no existe, es eterno», escribió Kierk...

The mind is always moving, so we must direct its movement toward better things. These will not be excessive things: too much success is bad, harming the interests that smaller success would help. We want to keep our wins from getting too big. To avoid being seduced into pursuing more goods than would be truly good for us. Quemadmodum flamma surgit in rectum, iacere ac deprimi non potest, non magis quam quiescere, ita noster animus in motu est, eo mobilior et actuosior quo vehementior fuerit. Sed felix qui ad meliora hunc impetum dedit: ponet se extra ius dicionemque fortunae; secunda temperabit, adversa comminuet et aliis admiranda despiciet. Magni animi est magna contemnere ac mediocria malle quam nimia; illa enim utilia vitaliaque sunt, at haec eo quod superfluunt nocent. Sic segetem nimia sternit ubertas, sic rami onere franguntur, sic ad maturitatem non pervenit nimia fecunditas. Idem animis quoque evenit quos immoderata felicitas rumpit, qua non tantum in aliorum iniuriam sed etia...

Life requires us to make decisions, and we naturally remember these decisions as stories. Over time, stories acquire a certain gravitas that causes people to take them too seriously, to become so caught up in their story-character that they fail to act properly in real life. Marcus Aurelius advises himself to avoid this by disenchanting the stories around important things that can seduce us with unbounded desire (cf. good food & drink, which tempt us to eat more than we can well digest; good clothes, which tempt us to want more & nicer garments than we need; good sex, which tempts us to want more than is healthy). If something seems too much like a fairytale, Marcus tells himself to see it as simply as possible, without creating or accepting narratives about its past or putative futures. Necessary as stories are to us, as creatures of memory, we don't want to be tricked by them into acting badly, against our better interest and the good of others around us. Οἷον δὴ τὸ φαντα...

The consciousness of God, for Unamuno, includes the individual consciousness of every single living being. It has memory of each being that has existed, ever, and so keeps their individuality alive beyond the ravages of time. It is also a personal consciousness, he believes, not the impersonal Soul or soul-stuff imagined by some ancient pagans (like Marcus Aurelius, who believes in the conservation of soul as part of matter, but not the conservation of individuals as coherent beings). Hay quien vive del aire sin conocerlo. Y así vivimos de Dios y en Dios acaso, en Dios espíritu y conciencia de la sociedad y del Universo todo, en cuanto éste también es sociedad. Dios no es sentido sino en cuanto es vivido, y no sólo de pan vive el hombre, sino de toda palabra que sale de la boca de Él. (Mat. IV, 4; Deut. VIII, 3.) Y esta personalización del todo, del Universo, a que nos lleva el amor, la compasión, es la de una persona que abarca y encierra en sí a las demás personas que la componen. Es...

Seneca promises to write some philosophical commentaries for Lucilius, though he is inclined to produce summaries instead (providing the meat of a philosopher's meaning rather than an illustration or discussion of what he is reported or written to have said). He recommends that Lucilius read freely all the philosophy he can find on his own, turning the nobility in others' moral character to good use as inspiration for improving his own decency. Note the purpose of ancient philosophy: to render us, as practitioners, as decent and humane as we can be. Commentarios quos desideras, diligenter ordinatos et in angustum coactos, ego vero componam; sed vide ne plus profutura sit ratio ordinaria quam haec quae nunc vulgo breviarium dicitur, olim cum latine loqueremur summarium vocabatur. Illa res discenti magis necessaria est, haec scienti; illa enim docet, haec admonet. Sed utriusque rei tibi copiam faciam. Tu a me non est quod illum aut illum exigas: qui notorem dat ignotus est. Scrib...

Marcus Aurelius needs philosophy to avoid going insane at court. Εἰ μητρυιάν τε ἅμα εἶχες καὶ μητέρα, ἐκείνην τ’ ἂν ἐθεράπευες καὶ ὅμως ἡ ἐπάνοδός σοι πρὸς τὴν μητέρα συνεχὴς ἐγίνετο. τοῦτό σοι νῦν ἐστιν ἡ αὐλὴ καὶ ἡ φιλοσοφία· ὧδε πολλάκις ἐπάνιθι καὶ προσαναπαύου ταύτῃ, δι’ ἣν καὶ τὰ ἐκεῖ σοι ἀνεκτὰ φαίνεται καὶ σὺ ἐν αὐτοῖς ἀνεκτός. If you had a stepmother and a mother, the proper way to handle your stepmother would be to visit your actual mother constantly. This is your situation when it comes to the imperial court and philosophy. Visit philosophy often and rest with her, since she makes court-life bearable for you, and keeps you from being insufferable there.

Unamuno asks what truth is. We want things to be true, because we have real needs that must be met. What meets those needs should be true insofar as it causes us to cease striving to fulfil needs. If I am hungry, true food makes me really not hungry, when I eat it. Thirst is quenched by true drink. Man and society must be held together by truth like this, truth that answers our need for unity and integrity. Is reason such a truth? Perhaps not. It does not appear to satisfy our need to become whole or healthy, as social individuals or individual historical societies. ¿Es todo esto verdad? ¿Y qué es verdad? —preguntaré a mi vez como preguntó Pilato. Pero no para volver a lavarme las manos sin esperar respuesta. ¿Está la verdad en la razón, o sobre la razón, o bajo la razón, o fuera de ella, de un modo cualquiera? ¿Es sólo verdadero lo racional? ¿No habrá realidad inasequible, por su naturaleza misma, a la razón, y acaso, por su misma naturaleza, opuesta a ella? ¿Y cómo conocer esa realid...

Conversation is better for learning than public lectures are. Conversation allows you to approach what is said carefully, from more than one position, so that you get a better sense for what is being discussed than you can have from a prepared speech (that cannot adjust to accommodate too many views without losing its own coherence, and so must adopt a certain rigidity in its form and presentation). Seneca advises Lucilius to remember good conversations, keeping words from them in his mind as a source of constant inspiration for deeds, which demonstrate and invigorate the reason that our minds possess, the power of our philosophy. Merito exigis ut hoc inter nos epistularum commercium frequentemus. Plurimum proficit sermo, quia minutatim irrepit animo: disputationes praeparatae et effusae audiente populo plus habent strepitus, minus familiaritatis. Philosophia bonum consilium est: consilium nemo clare dat. Aliquando utendum est et illis, ut ita dicam, contionibus, ubi qui dubitat impell...

Remember what works by continually doing it. When things become difficult, or wrong, go back to something good that you are always doing, that you can rely on to be what you need. Your character is the sum of what you do, and the more you do the things that bring harmony to your life, the more harmonious that character will become. Ὅταν ἀναγκασθῇς ὑπὸ τῶν περιεστηκότων οἱονεὶ διαταραχθῆναι, ταχέως ἐπάνιθι εἰς ἑαυτὸν καὶ μὴ ὑπὲρ τὰ ἀναγκαῖα ἐξίστασο τοῦ ῥυθμοῦ· ἔσῃ γὰρ ἐγκρατέστερος τῆς ἁρμονίας τῷ συνεχῶς εἰς αὐτὴν ἐπανέρχεσθαι. Whenever circumstances drive you to distraction, so that you become confused, retreat swiftly into yourself and do not depart more than is necessary from your tried and true routine. You will acquire greater power from the harmony in your life if you are constantly returning to it.

Unamuno imagines us as simultaneously individual and social, an association between two different selves that isn't fully reducible to either. The society that includes all matter is Nature, and when we personify this, adding our affection for matter to the matter itself, we see God. We are part of Nature and God, as they are part of us. Being part of something doesn't mean understanding or controlling it, in any total or totally coherent way, but there is some room for us to act as individuals, to express and rationalize what we observe of the unity between ourselves and the world(s) around us. Y recordando lo que en otra parte de esta obra dijimos, podemos decir que las cosas materiales en cuanto conocidas, brotan al conocimiento desde el hambre, y del hambre brota el universo sensible o material en que las conglobamos, y las cosas ideales brotan del amor y del amor brota Dios, en quien esas cosas ideales conglobamos, como en Conciencia del Universo. Es la conciencia social, ...