Unamuno English

munoMIGUEL DE UNAMUNO

Unamuno is considered one of the most important Spanish writers and philosophers, leading figure in the brilliant 98’s generation. He was professor and later rector of theUniversity of Salamanca, where he had numerous clashes mainly for political reasons, being finally removed from that position by General Franco in 1936. He also suffered exile during the dictatorship ofPrimo de Rivera.
The favorite topics of his philosophy, which are shown in his literary, are the man of flesh and blood, the immortality of souls, and the agony of human condition. We can say thatUnamuno's philosophical work is a philosophical anthropology.
Unamuno's existentialism is born as a confrontation with the Spanish reality of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In hishistorical context, Spain is affected by the loss to USA and the loss of their colonies (“El desastre de 1898”, “The 1898’s disaster”) and the great political and social problems generated by thediscomfort of the middle and lower classes.
For Unamuno the essence of life is the anxiety of not dying, the desire for eternity, and the anguish that comes from the conflict between faith and reason. Hedefends that scientism and rationalism are one of the ways that lead to suicide, the attitude adopted by those who, in their eagerness to theology or on hate antitheological invincible, nocontradiction warn the true way of thinking and feeling of existential man.
In his philosophy also appears frequently the religion. Unamuno summarized his personal creed thus: "My religion is to seek for truthin life and for life in truth, even knowing that I shall not find them while I live."
His ethics is summarized in doing everything you can and do, and doing your best. It is an ethic of salvation,which tries to make each human irreplaceable and leave the track at all. Making the world a different place than when you did not exist is the way to increase yourself to the end of your chances....