Philosophical Issues In Miguel De Unamuno's Essay 'Saint Manuel Bueno, Martyr'.

Wisdom, Happiness, God, Nature, Civilization, and Evil

Philosophers from different time periods and from around the world have talked about various philosophical issues and have also researched them. Some of the most intimidating and common philosophical issues that can be seen to be analysed about wisdom happiness God nature civilization and evil. all these philosophical issues have been talked about by famous philosophers like Aristotle and Plato, and it has been also seen that these philosophical issues have deep-rooted connections with several literary texts that the authors and writers have written over time (Kraut, 2021). If one of the philosophical issues is taken into consideration, for example, the existence of God and the perception of religion it can be seen that there have been many analyses by different philosophers done through texts as well. The existence of God is imaginary and the concept of religion that has been inflicted in the minds of people in different parts of the world is to some extent vague. The vagueness of religion as an institute that drives people is not right and it is just something that gives hope and faith to people and nothing more than that (Reece, 2019). In this assignment, three themes will be taken into consideration such as happiness, God, and civilization. These teams will be understood and analysed and see how they connect with Miguel de Unamuno’s short story “Saint Manuel Bueno, Martyr.”

The first philosophical issue that is being talked about in this assignment is happiness. If happiness is taken into consideration, it can be said that Aristotle has given us a theory about happiness and how happiness is not only the main thing that is needed to live a good life for stop Aristotle has also talked about how the word due is important in our lives and how these two things that we balanced in order to get a good life (Tamir  et al. 2017). Not only that but also people in the world have to understand how happiness and virtue go hand in hand so that they can live a good life and understand how much these two things are important for us. Happiness in itself is important for a good life. However, understanding the good and bad and having the knowledge of understanding what is right and what is wrong is also a part of being virtuous. Being virtuous is important for a good life as that gives the knowledge a person has for a better understanding of the rights and wrongs (Bean, 2020). The understanding of virtues and ethics in life and their importance would help any person to lead a good life and that would also provide them happiness. Happiness does not come in one form but also in different other forms. Virtue and ethics can be taken as one the forms that give an immense amount of happiness to people in the long run (Egbekpalu, 2021). If the connection is to be drawn with the story of Manuel Bueno it can be seen that the priest who used to help the people regardless of anything whatsoever only wanted the happiness and good for the people. The people of the village blindly trusted him for the fact that he was virtuous towards them and always did what was good for them. However, the secrets of Manuel Bueno were not known to the villagers but still, they had faith in him which helped them do understand that the happiness that they're getting from the virtues of Manuel Bueno is both important and essential. Not only that but also the unconditional love and support that Bueno had for the villagers give him happiness as well.

Virtue and Ethics in Life

The second issue that can be taken into consideration as the discussion is proceeding is God. In different religions from all over the world, the existence of God has been defined in different ways. Different people from different parts of the world have different perspectives about God. There have also been many controversies regarding the perspectives of different people. Some people from different parts of the world believe that there is no God and does not also believe in the concept of religion (Kanu, 2017). However, on the other hand, there are people who blindly believe in the existence of God. These two contradictory thought processes and perspectives have been majorly the reason for many controversies and contradictions from all over the world. Religion plays an important role in different kinds of social logical problems that have been arising in society for a very long time now. If the connection is to be drawn between the story of Manuel Bueno and the existence of God, it can be seen that the existence of God is one of the major themes of the story that is being talked about. The main protagonist of the story is a priest (Adams, 2018). Manuel Bueno was a priest of a small village and helped the people to recover from sickness, healed them, solve their problems and give them an immense amount of love and support that they need it. However, being the main character of the story and more importantly, being a priest, he did not believe in the concept of God or religion. The villagers did not know about it nonetheless his thoughts were pretty clear about the existence of God and religion. Manuel Bueno was a man who would do unconditionally for the villagers I actually enjoyed doing that for them. Not only that but also the narrator of the story Angela also shares her perspective that changed over the course of time due to Manuel Bueno and her elder brother who also did not believe in the concept of God (Camus, 2018). The concept of God has been framed and made up the theory by people from different parts of the world. The supreme entity that is called God and has been named in different ways by different religions is actually something that needs to be analysed and talked about. However many philosophers have said that the existence of God not only depends on how the people are perceiving it but the creation that we see all around us will stop if the biblical reference is taken into consideration it can be seen that the fall of Lucifer and the rise of the evil has also been shown in the Bible through the series of incidents of Adam and Eve and the garden of Eden (Serrano, 2020). This gives out the idea to people of how to perceive the existence of God as a good entity and someone who always takes care of us and shows us the right path. Hence the connection between the analysis of philosophers and the story of Manuel Bueno tells us that religion is only a backbone that gives support to the people by providing them faith and hope. Other than that religion does not play an important role in the formation of civilizations or mankind whatsoever (Schaefer, 2018). This thought of Manuel Bueno is what the actual story is revolving around.

The Existence of God and the Perceptions of Religion

“The most important thing is for people to be happy, and for them to be content with their lives. Contentment with one’s life is the most important thing. No one should want to die until God wills it.” in this court this clearly seen that he's contradicting himself. Due to his loneliness and his contradictory thoughts he also wanted to commit suicide at some points. However, in this quote, it is contradictory that his urge to commit suicide does not really go with what he's telling in this quote as he speaks about the fact that death is only in the hands of God.

Coming to the third philosophical issue that can be taken into consideration is the civilizations that have been made and built up with the passage of time. Civilization and human beings have been a long-term process that has been taking place slowly and steadily over age are now. However, the civilization that we're talking about in today's world has developed its mindsets in different ways (Víquez Jiménez, 2017). However, in ancient times, the thought process and the mindsets of today's world and today's generation were far different from what it was in the ancient generations. Taking an example of the mindsets of people’s acceptance towards other people’s perceptions is one of the major reasons where the differences lie. These difference of accepting a person’s thought process by today's generation and not being able to accept somebody's differences is a treat of ancient generation talks about the differences and high generation gaps between two generations that are being discussed (Gare, 2016). Hence the civilization and its concepts can be connected to the story of manual Bueno in a way that the villagers read dependent on him for healing and guidance thinking of him as a religious and spiritual priest. They did not know about the reality of Manuel Bueno and what his perspectives were about the existence of God. The difference between the mindsets of two different peoples coming from two different parts of the society shows the gap that has been formed between generations (Haraldsen, 2020). Manuel Bueno and the elder brother of Angela had the same thoughts about the existence of God. However, Angela was a very religious and spiritual girl in her younger days. As she came to know about the truth about Manuel Bueno, she was shocked and devastated to some extent, however, she slowly and steadily understood the differences in perspectives and opinions of different people from all over the world.

Summing up the entire discussion about the philosophical issues with theories, it is understood that these theories have a deep-rooted connexion with the story of Manuel Bueno. The understanding of the importance of happiness and virtue in life can be seen in this story as the main protagonist selflessly helps the villagers in order for them to heal from Sickness or trauma. In this story there was also the social logical aspect of the existence of God was addressed. The main protagonist who was ironically a priest did not believe in the existence of God and took religion as just A tag that provided people wait for faith and hope. Hence the concept of religion is man-made and does not have any deep-rooted connexion with the actual growth of mankind. It is just a man-made concept that makes the dependency of humans on some supernatural entity even stronger. The transition of perspectives was also seen in the story as the narrator moved from one perspective to another and had shown the development and growth of her mindset.

References:

Kraut, R. (2021). Aristotle on the human good. In Aristotle on the Human Good. Princeton University Press.

Reece, B. C. (2019). Happiness According to Aristotle. CHS Research Bulletin, 7.

Tamir, M., Schwartz, S. H., Oishi, S., & Kim, M. Y. (2017). The secret to happiness: Feeling good or feeling right?. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 146(10), 1448.

Egbekpalu, P. E. (2021). Aristotelian Concept of Happiness (Eudaimonia) and its Conative Role in Human Existence: A Critical Evaluation. Conatus-Journal of Philosophy, 6(2), 75-86.

Kanu, I. A. (2017). Igwebuike as a wholistic Response to the Problem of Evil and Human Suffering. Igwebuike: An African Journal of Arts and Humanities, 3(2), 1-7.

Adams, M. M. (2018). Horrendous evils and the goodness of God. In Horrendous Evils and the Goodness of God. Cornell University Press.

Camus, A. THE PHILANTROPISTS OF CAMUS AND UNAMUNO: DR RIEUX AND SAINT MANUEL BUENO, MARTYR. ¿ Desea ser patrocinador de la Revista Comunicación del ITCR?, 68.

Serrano, J. (2020). ON THE INFLUENCE OF DOSTOYEVSKI IN UNAMUNO´ S WORK. Revista Orbis, 15(45), 64-71.

Víquez Jiménez, A. (2017). The philantropists of Camus and Unamuno: Dr Rieux and Saint Manuel Bueno, Martyr. Comunicación, 26(1), 68-77.

Gare, A. (2016). The philosophical foundations of ecological civilization: a manifesto for the future. Routledge.

Haraldsen, M. (2020). Individual and Society in San Manuel Bueno, Mártir, Il Barone Rampante and La Peste. A Cognitive Approach (Master's thesis).

Schaefer, K. (2018). Enchanting Stories and Secular Scripts: Religion and Secularization in Selected Works by Miguel de Unamuno.

Bean, M. (2020). A New Look at the Role of the Female in Twentieth Century Spain: Understanding Maternal Love in the Works of Miguel de Unamuno (Doctoral dissertation).