Tragic Sense Of Life by Miguel de Unamuno
page 33 of 397 (08%)
page 33 of 397 (08%)
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TRANSLATOR'S NOTE Footnotes added by the Translator, other than those which merely supplement references to writers or their works mentioned in the text, are distinguished by his initials. I THE MAN OF FLESH AND BONE _Homo sum; nihil humani a me alienum puto_, said the Latin playwright. And I would rather say, _Nullum hominem a me alienum puto_: I am a man; no other man do I deem a stranger. For to me the adjective _humanus_ is no less suspect than its abstract substantive _humanitas_, humanity. Neither "the human" nor "humanity," neither the simple adjective nor the substantivized adjective, but the concrete substantive--man. The man of flesh and bone; the man who is born, suffers, and dies--above all, who dies; the man who eats and drinks and plays and sleeps and thinks and wills; the man who is seen and heard; the brother, the real brother. For there is another thing which is also called man, and he is the subject of not a few lucubrations, more or less scientific. He is the legendary featherless biped, the _zôon politikhon_ of Aristotle, the social contractor of Rousseau, the _homo economicus_ of the |
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