![]() ![]() ![]() Unamuno’s response to this tragedy – in other words, to this struggle between our heart and our reason – is to preserve this contradiction. I want to continue to live forever as a person who develops, struggles, hopes. I don’t want to lose my identity, to forget my struggles, or to remain frozen in an unchanging perfection. I want to continue to live as myself, as John Smith. It cannot paint a coherent possibility that would satisfy our longing to live forever.Īccording to reason, after we die we may perhaps (who knows) be absorbed into a universal consciousness, or live in a permanent heaven with perfect happiness – but all this would not satisfy me. We long for eternal life, but reason is unable to make sense of this longing. Our reason and our heart pull us in opposite directions, especially in the issue of death and immortality. Reason is clear and precise, but it is remote from life. For Unamuno, the "tragic" is the struggle between life and reason. The following text is adapted from Unamuno’s major book The Tragic Sense of Life (1912). ![]()
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