Introduction

If we survey the path of all the alternatives to reason, because we discern that logic is too distant from concrete man, and if, at the same time, we do not completely lose faith in it, because a logic of the heart based on simple feeling is pure irrationalism, then we are at the crossroads where Miguel de Unamuno's philosophy has its origin. It is a crossroads between the nineteenth and twentieth century, between the paths of metaphysical rationalism and the currents of positivism which made a rather late entry to Spain – precisely during Unamuno's formative years. His alert gaze, and his restless riffling of books and notes were accompanied by a growing anguish, because lack of certainty was not easily compatible with the peace and serenity of certain Castilian bucolic scenes that he had described so magisterially in his literary work; rather, it was wedded to pain, distress and desperation.

Arriving at this crossroads from the pathway of positivism were new political and social doctrines; these were joined by new spiritual currents such as Liberal Protestantism or Catholic Modernism. Following this path appeared not to require much effort, rather as it is easy to walk through the avenues of big cities such as Madrid or Paris, for example, with their wide pavements, and benches on which one can sit and rest. But a secret inner voice which had been whispering to Unamuno since his childhood invited him up a rocky, unpaved track, which climbed towards mountains whose peaks Unamuno could not discern. What if Something were there? And what good were all the books in the world if none of them could answer that question definitively?

Human beings live within a paradox: faith and hope in everlasting life are incompatible with reason. There is struggle between them: ‘life is tragedy, and the tragedy is perpetual struggle, without victory or the hope of contradiction, life is contradiction’ (Unamuno 1954: 14; OCE VII, 117; OCA XVI, 140).