Unamuno as “Pathological” Phenomenologist: Tragic Sense and Beyond

Abstract

Being widely taken as a representative of the existentialist movement, Miguel de Unamuno has devoted much of his energy to the study of human passions. The “tragic sense of life” as expounded by Unamuno is no doubt the most fundamental challenge to religion as well as to philosophy. In this paper I will try to argue that, in respect of scope and method, Unamuno’s work does bear kinship to, yet is different from and augments to the work of other major representatives of the phenomenological movement. After that, I will try to embark upon the classical phenomenological issue of consciousness so as to illustrate how such an issue can unfold in a Unamunian setting. Then, returning to the basic intent of Unamuno, I will examine what Unamuno means by tragic sense, and show what crisis or “agony” this tragic sense could mean to human existence. Finally, I will try to show what we can learn from Unamuno’s tragic experience, and will conclude with some suggestions for a possible way out of the Unamunian impasse.