OBITUARY

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 2, 4 January 1937, Page 9

OBITUARY

i SENOR DE UNAMUNO ? 5 AVILA, January ft The death has occurrred of Migue " de Unamuno, Spain's Bernard Sh;aw ■ He was born at Bilbao in 1864 and \v;a: : honoured at Oxford and Cambridge : He was the author of many books and supported the rebels. E " Miguel de Unamuno, who was 72 years of age, was the loremost Spanish writer and philosopher, and one of the I leading intellectual figures in Europe He belonged to the group of writer; known as the generation of 1898, which exercised a great influence on the intellectual and. political development oJ modern Spain. The year 1898 witnessed the humiliating defeat of Spair: in the war with America, which rang the death-knell of Spain as a great colonial Power. This group of writers and intellectuals attributed the defeal to the backwardness of Spain, and . they set out in their writings to awaken their native country from the medieval | slumber which left her behind the progressive countries of Western Europe. Professor of Greek, and later I Chancellor of the ancient university oi Salamanca, this aged philosopher exercised a great influence on the intellectual and political life of his country by his numerous writings. His work, "The Tragic Sense of Life," develops a philosophy which aims more at the synthetic view of the wholeness of life, than a mere schemaetic presentation of a philosophical system. In the centre of Unamuno's philosophy was man—not the abstract concept of man as some philosophers see him, or the vertical mammal of the scientist, but "the man of flesh and bones, he that is born and dies—above all dies, he that eats and drinks and plays and sleeps, and thinks and wants, the man who see and hears, the brother, the true brother." Unamuno denied the primacy of the intellect. The main quality of man, according to him, was feeling. "Man is said to be a reasoning animal. I do not know why he has not been defined as an affective or feeling animal. Perhaps that which differentiates him from other animals, is feeling rather than reason.'.' The same passion which characterised his concept of man was evident in his philosophy of life. "Life is the sole mistress of life; there is no pedantry that is worth anything. Living is the only way to learn to live, and every man has to commence his apprenticeship of life over again." This life in its complexity and the living man form the subject matter of Unamuno's volumes of verse, novels, and philosophical essays. His writings are marked by their deep psychological insight, candid self-examination, and, above all, by passionate search for the ultimate values of life. The quintessence of Unamuno's philosophy is summed up in the following passage:—"l am the centre of my universe. For what does it serve a man to gain the ■ whole world and lose his own soul? There is nothing more universal than the individual, since that which tis of each one of us is of all." This deep sense of responsibility of the one for the many lends a religious fervour to his books, and made him an ardent fighter against despotism and oppression. A staunch democrat, Unamuno fought with his pen the corruption of the clique which was close to the ruling dynasty. His outspoken criticism of Primo de Rivera's dictatorship, which he expressed forcefully in many political writings, caused his arrest and detention in the prison of Fuerteventura, on the Canary Islands. His arrest caused great concern. Protests were sent from many leading European philosophers, writers, and statesmen. The Spanish Government was compelled to grant him an amnesty. Although free to return to Spain, Unamuno preferred a life in exile to that of enforced silence under a dictatorship. The Republic of Spain owes a great deal to the political writings of the philosopher while abroad. When the monarchy fell in 1931, Unamuno returned to his country, to become one of the foremost figures in the political life of Spain. He resided in Madrid, where he was the editor of the leading Spanish daily paper, "El Sol."