George Santayana
George Santayana | |
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Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, known in English as George Santayana (
Santayana is popularly known for
Early life
Santayana was born on December 16, 1863, in
In 1869, Josefina Borrás de Santayana returned to Boston with her three Sturgis children, because she had promised her first husband to raise the children in the US. She left the six-year-old Jorge with his father in Spain. Jorge and his father followed her to Boston in 1872. His father, finding neither Boston nor his wife's attitude to his liking, soon returned alone to Ávila, and remained there the rest of his life. Jorge did not see him again until he entered Harvard College and began to take his summer vacations in Spain. Sometime during this period, Jorge's first name was anglicized as George, the English equivalent.
Education
Santayana attended
After graduating from Harvard[11] in 1886, Santayana studied for two years in Berlin.[12] He then returned to Harvard to write his dissertation on Hermann Lotze (1889).[13] He was a professor at Harvard from 1889 to 1912,[8] becoming part of the Golden Age of the Harvard philosophy department. Some of his Harvard students became famous in their own right, including Conrad Aiken, W. E. B. Du Bois, T. S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Horace Kallen, Walter Lippmann and Gertrude Stein. Wallace Stevens was not among his students but became a friend.[14] From 1896 to 1897, Santayana studied at King's College, Cambridge.[15]
Later life
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In 1912, Santayana resigned his position at Harvard to spend the rest of his life in Europe. He had saved money and been aided by a legacy from his mother. After some years in Ávila, Paris and Oxford, after 1920, he began to winter in Rome, eventually living there year-round until his death. During his 40 years in Europe, he wrote 19 books and declined several prestigious academic positions. Many of his visitors and correspondents were Americans, including his assistant and eventual literary executor, Daniel Cory. In later life, Santayana was financially comfortable, in part because his 1935 novel, The Last Puritan, had become an unexpected best-seller. In turn, he financially assisted a number of writers, including Bertrand Russell, with whom he was in fundamental disagreement, philosophically and politically.
Santayana's one novel, The Last Puritan, is a
While his writings on technical philosophy can be difficult, his other writings are more accessible and pithy. He wrote poems and a few plays, and left ample correspondence, much of it published only since 2000. Like
Philosophical work and publications
Santayana's main philosophical work consists of The Sense of Beauty (1896), his first book-length monograph and perhaps the first major work on aesthetics written in the United States; The Life of Reason (5 vols., 1905–06), the high point of his Harvard career; Scepticism and Animal Faith (1923); and The Realms of Being (4 vols., 1927–1940). Although Santayana was not a pragmatist in the mold of William James, Charles Sanders Peirce, Josiah Royce, or John Dewey, The Life of Reason arguably is the first extended treatment of pragmatism written.
Like many of the classical pragmatists, and because he was well-versed in
Santayana was an early adherent of
Although an
he held a fairly benign view of religion and described himself as an "aesthetic Catholic". Santayana's views on religion are outlined in his books Reason in Religion, The Idea of Christ in the Gospels, and Interpretations of Poetry and Religion.He held racial superiority and eugenic views. He believed superior races should be discouraged from "intermarriage with inferior stock".[21]
Legacy
Santayana is remembered in large part for his aphorisms, many of which have been so frequently used as to have become clichéd. His philosophy has not fared quite as well. He is regarded by most as an excellent prose stylist, and John Lachs (who is sympathetic with much of Santayana's philosophy) writes, in On Santayana, that his eloquence may ironically be the very cause of this neglect.
Santayana influenced those around him, including Bertrand Russell, whom Santayana single-handedly steered away from the ethics of G. E. Moore.[22] He also influenced many prominent people such as Harvard students T. S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Gertrude Stein, Horace Kallen, Walter Lippmann, W. E. B. Du Bois, Conrad Aiken, Van Wyck Brooks, Felix Frankfurter, Max Eastman, Wallace Stevens. Stevens was especially influenced by Santayana's aesthetics and became a friend even though Stevens did not take courses taught by Santayana.[23][24][25]
Santayana is quoted by the Canadian-American sociologist Erving Goffman as a central influence in the thesis of his famous book The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959). Religious historian Jerome A. Stone credits Santayana with contributing to the early thinking in the development of religious naturalism.[26] English mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead quotes Santayana extensively in his magnum opus Process and Reality (1929).[27]
In popular culture
Santayana's passing is referenced in the lyrics to singer-songwriter Billy Joel's 1989 music single, "We Didn't Start the Fire".[29]
The quote "Only the dead have seen the end of war" is frequently attributed or
Awards
- Royal Society of Literature Benson Medal, 1925.[32]
- Columbia University Butler Gold Medal, 1945.[33]
- Honorary degree from the University of Wisconsin, 1911.[34]
Bibliography
- 1894. Sonnets And Other Verses.
- 1896. The Sense of Beauty: Being the Outline of Aesthetic Theory.
- 1899. Lucifer: A Theological Tragedy.
- 1900. Interpretations of Poetry and Religion.
- 1901. A Hermit of Carmel And Other Poems.
- 1905–1906. The Life of Reason: or the Phases of Human Progress, 5 vols.
- 1910. Three Philosophical Poets: Lucretius, Dante, and Goethe.
- 1913. Winds of Doctrine: Studies in Contemporary Opinion.
- 1915. Egotism in German Philosophy.
- 1920. Character and Opinion in the United States: With Reminiscences of William James and Josiah Royce and Academic Life in America.
- 1920. Little Essays, Drawn From the Writings of George Santayana. by Logan Pearsall Smith, With the Collaboration of the Author.
- 1922. Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies.
- 1922. Poems.
- 1923. Scepticism and Animal Faith: Introduction to a System of Philosophy.
- 1926. Dialogues in Limbo
- 1927. Platonism and the Spiritual Life.
- 1927–40. The Realms of Being, 4 vols.
- 1931. The Genteel Tradition at Bay.
- 1933. Some Turns of Thought in Modern Philosophy: Five Essays
- 1935. The Last Puritan: A Memoir in the Form of a Novel.
- 1936. Obiter Scripta: Lectures, Essays and Reviews. Justus Buchler and Benjamin Schwartz, eds.
- 1944. Persons and Places.
- 1945. The Middle Span.
- 1946. The Idea of Christ in the Gospels; or, God in Man: A Critical Essay.
- 1948. Dialogues in Limbo, With Three New Dialogues.
- 1951. Dominations and Powers: Reflections on Liberty, Society, and Government.
- 1953. My Host The World
Posthumous edited/selected works
- 1955. The Letters of George Santayana. Daniel Cory, ed. Charles Scribner's Sons. New York. (296 letters)
- 1956. Essays in Literary Criticism of George Santayana. Irving Singer, ed.
- 1957. The Idler and His Works, and Other Essays. Daniel Cory, ed.
- 1967. The Genteel Tradition: Nine Essays by George Santayana. Douglas L. Wilson, ed.
- 1967. George Santayana's America: Essays on Literature and Culture. James Ballowe, ed.
- 1967. Animal Faith and Spiritual Life: Previously Unpublished and Uncollected Writings by George Santayana With Critical Essays on His Thought. John Lachs, ed.
- 1968. Santayana on America: Essays, Notes, and Letters on American Life, Literature, and Philosophy. Richard Colton Lyon, ed.
- 1968. Selected Critical Writings of George Santayana, 2 vols. Norman Henfrey, ed.
- 1969. Physical Order and Moral Liberty: Previously Unpublished Essays of George Santayana. John and Shirley Lachs, eds.
- 1979. The Complete Poems of George Santayana: A Critical Edition. Edited, with an introduction, by W. G. Holzberger. Bucknell University Press.
- 1995. The Birth of Reason and Other Essays. Daniel Cory, ed., with an Introduction by Herman J. Saatkamp, Jr. Columbia Univ. Press.
- 2009. The Essential Santayana. Selected Writings Edited by the Santayana Edition, Compiled and with an introduction by Martin A. Coleman. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
- 2009. The Genteel Tradition in American Philosophy and Character and Opinion in the United States (Rethinking the Western Tradition), Edited and with an introduction by James Seaton and contributions by Wilfred M. McClay, John Lachs, Roger Kimball and James Seaton Yale University Press.
- 2021. Recently Discovered Letters of George Santayana / Cartas recién descubiertas de George Santayana, Edited and with an introduction by Daniel Pinkas translated by Daniel Moreno, and a Prologue by José Beltrán.
The Works of George Santayana
Unmodernized, critical editions of George Santayana's published and unpublished writing. The Works is edited by the Santayana Edition and published by The MIT Press.
- 1986. Persons and Places. Santayana's autobiography, incorporating Persons and Places, 1944; The Middle Span, 1945; and My Host the World, 1953.
- 1988 (1896). The Sense of Beauty: Being the Outline of Aesthetic Theory.
- 1990 (1900). Interpretations of Poetry and Religion.
- 1994 (1935). The Last Puritan: A Memoir in the Form of a Novel.
- The Letters of George Santayana. Containing over 3,000 of his letters, many discovered posthumously, to more than 350 recipients.
- 2001. Book One, 1868–1909.
- 2001. Book Two, 1910–1920.
- 2002. Book Three, 1921–1927.
- 2003. Book Four, 1928–1932.
- 2003. Book Five, 1933–1936.
- 2004. Book Six, 1937–1940.
- 2006. Book Seven, 1941–1947.
- 2008. Book Eight, 1948–1952.
- 2011. George Santayana's Marginalia: A Critical Selection, Books 1 and 2. Compiled by John O. McCormick and edited by Kristine W. Frost.
- The Life of Reason in five books.
- 2011 (1905). Reason in Common Sense.
- 2013 (1905). Reason in Society.
- 2014 (1905). Reason in Religion.
- 2015 (1905). Reason in Art.
- 2016 (1906). Reason in Science.
- 2019 (1910). Three Philosophical Poets: Lucretius, Dante, and Goethe, Critical Edition, Edited by Kellie Dawson and David E. Spiech, with an introduction by James Seaton
- 2023 (1913). Winds of Doctrine, Critical Edition, Edited by David E Spiech, Martin A. Coleman and Faedra Lazar Weiss, with an introduction by Paul Forster
See also
References
- ^ John R. Shook (ed.), The Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers, Continuum, 2005, p. 1499.
- ^ "the definition of Santayana". dictionary.com. Archived from the original on November 23, 2018. Retrieved May 7, 2016.
- ^ George Santayana, "Apologia Pro Mente Sua", in P. A. Schilpp, The Philosophy of George Santayana (1940), 603.
- ^ George Santayana (1905) Reason in Common Sense, p. 284, volume 1 of The Life of Reason
- ^ George Santayana (1922) Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies, number 25
- ^ "Beauty as Intrinsic Pleasure by George Santayana". Archived from the original on April 26, 2018. Retrieved June 15, 2016.
- ^ Lovely, Edward W. (September 28, 2012). George Santayana's Philosophy of Religion: His Roman Catholic Influences and Phenomenology. Lexington Books. pp. 1, 204–206.
- ^ a b "George Santayana" at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Archived February 16, 2018, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved April 25, 2021
- ^ Parri, Alice Two Harvard Friends: Charles Loeser and George Santayana[1] Archived September 25, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Garrison, Lloyd McKim, An Illustrated History of the Hasty Pudding Club Theatricals, Cambridge, Hasty Pudding Club, 1897.
- ^ [2] Archived August 29, 2019, at the Wayback Machine and he was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa student fraternity Who Belongs To Phi Beta Kappa Archived January 3, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Phi Beta Kappa website, accessed October 4, 2009
- ^ "Santayana, George". Who's Who. Vol. 59. 1907. p. 1555.
- ^ George Santayana, Lotze's system of philosophy, Ph.D., 1889
- ISBN 0807112976. pp. 12–13.
- ^ "Santayana, George (SNTN896G)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ Saatkamp, Herman; Coleman, Martin (January 1, 2014). Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Archived from the original on March 18, 2019. Retrieved April 8, 2017 – via Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
- ^ "George Santayana, 88, Dies in Rome". Harvard Crimson death notice of September 29, 1952. Archived November 16, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. See also Harold Kirker (Fall 1990), "Santayana in Rome", Bulletin of the Santayana Society, pp. 35–37 for Kirker's wartime visit with Santayana in Rome.
- ^ George Santayana (1948–1952), The Letters of George Santayana, Book Eight, p. 8:39
- ^ "My atheism, like that of Spinoza, is true piety towards the universe, and denies only gods fashioned by men in their own image, to be servants of their human interests." George Santayana, "On My Friendly Critics", in Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies, 1922 (from Rawson's Dictionary of American Quotations via credoreference.com). Accessed August 1, 2008.
- ^ "Santayana playfully called himself 'a Catholic atheist', but in spite of the fact that he deliberately immersed himself in the stream of Catholic religious life, he never took the sacraments. He neither literally regarded himself as a Catholic nor did Catholics regard him as a Catholic." Kai Nielsen (July 1974), "Empiricism, Theoretical Constructs, and God", The Journal of Religion, Vol. 54, No. 3, pp. 199–217 (p. 205), published by The University of Chicago Press.
- ^ Santayana, George (November 26, 2015). "The Life of Reason: Human Understanding".
- ISBN 0826488102, p.4
- ISBN 0807112976. p.12-23.
- ^ "Stevens, Wallace". Archived from the original on July 25, 2013. Retrieved January 7, 2014.
- ^ Saatkamp, Herman, "George Santayana Archived December 2, 2013, at the Wayback Machine" The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2010 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)
- ^ Religious Naturalism Today, pp. 21–37
- ^ Whitehead, A.N. (1929). Process and Reality. An Essay in Cosmology. Gifford Lectures Delivered in the University of Edinburgh During the Session 1927–1928, Macmillan, New York, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK.
- ^ See the sixth paragraph, That's Not All, Folks! "Of course you know this means war." Who said it?, by Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal, November 25, 2003, (Archived at WebCite).
- ^ We Didn't Start the Fire Archived May 6, 2021, at the Wayback Machine. BillyJoel.com. Retrieved September 25, 2016.
- ^ SUZANNE, Bernard F. "Plato FAQ: Did Plato write :"Only the dead have seen the end of war"?". plato-dialogues.org. Archived from the original on October 18, 2018. Retrieved April 29, 2018.
- ^ "Who Really Said That?". The Chronicle of Higher Education. September 16, 2013. Archived from the original on June 25, 2018. Retrieved April 29, 2018.
- ^ "The Benson Medal". Archived from the original on September 18, 2013. Retrieved January 7, 2014.
- ^ George Santayana; William G. Holzberger (Editor). (2006). The Letters of George Santayana, Book Seven, 1941–1947. (MIT Press (MA), Hardcover, 9780262195560, 569pp.) (p. 143).
- ^ "University Lectures – Secretary of the Faculty". Archived from the original on September 28, 2013.
Further reading
- W. Arnett, 1955. Santayana and the Sense of Beauty, Bloomington, Indiana University Press.
- H. T. Kirby-Smith, 1997. A Philosophical Novelist: George Santayana and the Last Puritan. Southern Illinois University Press.
- Jeffers, Thomas L., 2005. Apprenticeships: The Bildungsroman from Goethe to Santayana. New York: Palgrave: 159–84.
- Lamont, Corliss (ed., with the assistance of Mary Redmer), 1959. Dialogue on George Santayana. New York: Horizon Press.
- McCormick, John, 1987. George Santayana: A Biography. Alfred A. Knopf. The biography.
- Padrón, Charles and Skowroński, Krzysztof Piotr, eds. 2018. The Life of Reason in an Age of Terrorism, Leiden-Boston: Brill.
- Saatkamp, Herman 2021, A Life of Scholarship with Santayana, edited by Charles Padrón and Krzysztof Piotr Skowroński, Leiden-Boston: Brill.
- Singer, Irving, 2000. George Santayana, Literary Philosopher. Yale University Press.
- Skowroński, Krzysztof Piotr, 2007. Santayana and America: Values, Liberties, Responsibility, Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
- Flamm, Matthew Caleb and Skowroński, Krzysztof Piotr (eds), 2007. Under Any Sky: Contemporary Readings of George Santayana. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
- Miguel Alfonso, Ricardo (ed.), 2010, La estética de George Santayana, Madrid: Verbum.
- Patella, Giuseppe, Belleza, arte y vida. La estética mediterranea de George Santayana, Valencia, PUV, 2010, pp. 212. ISBN 978-84-370-7734-5.
- Pérez Firmat, Gustavo. Tongue Ties: Logo-Eroticism in Anglo-Hispanic Literature. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
- Moreno, Daniel. Santayana the Philosopher: Philosophy as a Form of Life. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 2015. Translated by Charles Padron.
- Kremplewska, Katarzyna. George Santayana's Political Hermeneutics. Brill, 2022.
External links
- Critical Edition of the Works of George Santayana
- Works by George Santayana at Project Gutenberg
- Works by George Santayana at Faded Page (Canada)
- Works by or about George Santayana at Internet Archive
- Saatkamp, Herman. "George Santayana". In Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Includes a complete bibliography of the primary literature, and a fair selection of the secondary literature
- Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: "George Santayana" by Matthew C. Flamm
- The Santayana Edition Archived June 29, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
- Works by George Santayana at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Overheard in Seville Archived December 11, 2013, at the Wayback Machine: Bulletin of the Santayana Society
- On George Santayana Archived August 18, 2011, at the Wayback Machine: Spanish-English Blog about Santayana.
- LIMBO. BOLETÍN INTERNACIONAL SOBRE SANTAYANA Spanish-English Bulletin about Santayana Archived August 18, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- "George Santayana: Catholic Atheist" by Richard Butler in Spirituality Today, Vol. 38 (Winter 1986), p. 319
- George Santayana at Curlie
- George Santayana at Find a Grave
- George Santayana, "Many Nations in One Empire" (1934)