233
See also: Siddhartha Gautama 30–33 ■ St Augustine of Hippo 72–73 ■
Martin Heidegger 252–55 ■ Albert Camus 284–85 ■ Jean-Paul Sartre 268–71T
he Spanish philosopher,
novelist, and poet, Miguel
de Unamuno, is perhaps
best known for his book The Tragic
Sense of Life (1913). In this he
writes that all consciousness is
consciousness of death (we are
painfully aware of our lack of
immortality) and of suffering.
What makes us human is the
fact that we suffer.
At first glance, it may seem
as if this idea is close to that of
Sidhartha Gautama, the Buddha,
who also said that suffering is an
inescapable part of all human life.
But Unamuno’s response to suffering
is very different. Unlike the Buddha,
Unamuno does not see suffering as
a problem to be overcome through
practicing detachment. Instead he
argues that suffering is an essential
part of what it means to exist as a
human being, and a vital experience.
If all consciousness amounts to
consciousness of human mortality
and suffering, as Unamuno claims,
and if consciousness is what
makes us distinctively human,
then the only way we can lendTHE MODERN WORLD
IN CONTEXT
BRANCH
Ontology
APPROACH
Existentialism
BEFORE
c.500 BCE The Buddha
claims that all life is marked
by suffering and offers the
Eightfold Path as a route to
release from its causes.
c.400 CE Saint Augustine asks
how there can be suffering in
a world created by a good and
all-powerful God.
AFTER
1940 The Irish author and
scholar C.S. Lewis explores
the question of suffering in
his book The Problem of Pain.
20th century Unamuno’s
philosophy of suffering
influences other Spanish
writers such as Federico
García Lorca and Juan Ramón
Jiménez, and the British author
Graham Greene.
IT IS ONLY SUFFERING
THAT MAKES US
PERSONS
MIGUEL DE UNAMUNO (1864–1936)
our lives a kind of weight and
substance is to embrace this
suffering. If we turn away from
it, we are not only turning away
from what makes us human, we
are also turning away from
consciousness itself.Love or happiness
There is also an ethical dimension
to Unamuno’s ideas on suffering.
He claims that it is essential to
acknowledge our pain, because
it is only when we face the fact of
our own suffering that we become
capable of truly loving other
suffering beings. This presents us
with a stark choice. On the one
hand, we can choose happiness
and do our best to turn away from
suffering. On the other hand, we
can choose suffering and love.
The first choice may be easier,
but it is a choice that ultimately
limits us – indeed, severs us from
an essential part of ourselves. The
second choice is more difficult,
but it is one that opens the way
to the possibility of a life of depth
and significance. ■