I am still studying Dabrowski – there is an intriguing link between my writings of late and the works I plough through. One illicits the other, or clarifies elements, I’m not sure what it is.
In doing so, I came across Miguel de Unamuno, a Spanish scholar, novelist, poet and mystical philosopher whom Dabrowski admired greatly, I think because Mr. de Unamuno so passionately dedicated himself to his work, which was very varied, and to his studies, which were equally varied. (Reading up on him, I sensed this is the type of person one has in mind when referring to Homo Universalis.)
Mr. De Unamuno doesn’t come across as someone who struggles with limitations when thinking or writing. He did of course struggle with things in his life, as we all do, but it seems he used those struggles to advance himself, and his work.
In Tragic Sense of Life (1921), he writes:
“And after all, what is madness and how can we distinguish it from reason, unless we place ourselves outside both the one and the other, which for us is impossible?
Madness perhaps it is, and great madness, to seek to penetrate into the mystery of the Beyond; madness to seek to superimpose the self-contradictory dreams of our imagination upon the dictates of a sane reason. And a sane reason tells us that nothing can be built up without foundations, and that it is not merely an idle but a subversive task to fill the void of the unknown with fantasies.”
Hm… Madness, subversity, a task to fill the void…
Somehow, this got me thinking of Matthew Silver, an American street artist often perceived as a raving lunatic, while essentially through his work he allows his inner madman to come out and openly struggle with the burden that lies upon humanity.
I like how these men do not come up with clear-cut answers. (Mr. De Unamuno does try and give answers, but he does so in a splendidly dualistic way, leaving room to wriggle).
Their struggle is for their own advancement, and for mine as well. And perhaps, I can pay this forward with my work, who knows?