George Santayana (born Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952) was a Spanish philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist.
As a philosopher, Santayana is known for , such as "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it",[Santayana, George (1905) Reason in Common Sense, p. 284, volume 1 of The Life of Reason.] and "Only the dead have seen the end of war",[Santayana, George (1922) Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies, number 25.] and his definition of beauty as "Aesthetics".
At the age of 48, he left his academic position at Harvard University and permanently returned to Europe; his last will was to be buried in the Spanish Pantheon in the Campo Verano, Rome.
Early life
George Santayana was born on December 16, 1863, in Calle de San Bernardo of
Madrid and spent his early childhood in Ávila, Spain. His mother Josefina Borrás was the daughter of a Spanish official in the
Philippines and he was the only child of her second marriage.
[ "George Santayana" at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy . Retrieved April 25, 2021] Josefina Borrás' first husband was George Sturgis, a Boston merchant with the Manila firm Russell & Sturgis. She had five children with him; two of them died in infancy. She lived in Boston for a few years following her husband's death in 1857; in 1861, she moved with her three surviving children to Madrid. There she encountered Agustín Ruiz de Santayana, an old friend from her years in the Philippines. They married in 1862. A
Colonialism civil servant, Ruiz de Santayana was a painter and minor
intellectual. The family lived in Madrid and Ávila, and Jorge was born in Spain in 1863.
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. Although Santayana was raised and educated in the United States from the age of eight and identified as an American, he always retained a valid Spanish passport.[Santayana, George, "Apologia Pro Mente Sua", in P. A. Schilpp, The Philosophy of George Santayana (1940), 603.] Sometime during this period, his first name Jorge was anglicized to its English equivalent: George.
Education
as a student at
Harvard.]]Santayana attended Boston Latin School and
Harvard College, where he studied under the philosophers
William James and
Josiah Royce and was involved in eleven clubs.
He was founder and president of the Philosophical Club, a member of the literary society known as the O.K., an editor and cartoonist for
The Harvard Lampoon, he joined one of Harvard's "Final Clubs", the
Delphic Club, and co-founded the literary journal
The Harvard Monthly.
[Parri, Alice Two Harvard Friends: Charles Loeser and George Santayana[2] ] In December, 1885, he played the role of Lady Elfrida in the Hasty Pudding theatrical
Robin Hood, followed by the production
Papillonetta in the spring of his senior year.
[Garrison, Lloyd McKim, An Illustrated History of the Hasty Pudding Club Theatricals, Cambridge, Hasty Pudding Club, 1897.] He received his A.B.
summa cum laude in 1886 and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa student fraternity.
[ Who Belongs To Phi Beta Kappa , Phi Beta Kappa website, accessed October 4, 2009] In 1886, Santayana studied for two years in
Berlin.
He then returned to Harvard to write his dissertation on
Hermann Lotze (1889).
[George Santayana, Lotze's system of philosophy, Ph.D., 1889] He was a professor at Harvard from 1889 to 1912,
becoming part of the Golden Age of The Harvard University Department of Philosophy. 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.
[Lensing, George S. (1986). Wallace Stevens: A Poet's Growth. LSU Press. 313 pp. . pp. 12–13.] From 1896 to 1897, Santayana studied at King's College, Cambridge.
Later life
never married. His romantic life, if any, is not well understood. Some evidence, including a comment Santayana made late in life comparing himself to A. E. Housman, and his friendships with people who were openly
homosexual and
bisexual, has led scholars to speculate that Santayana was perhaps homosexual or bisexual, but it remains unclear whether he had any actual heterosexual or homosexual relationships.
Some historians would disagree with this assessment. For example, Santayana's biographer concluded that he had "an intense physical affair" with Frank Russell, 2nd Earl Russell, older brother to philosopher
Bertrand Russell.
The historian Douglass Shand-Tucci included an extensive discussion of Santayana's sexuality in his book on Boston's homosexual subculture in the late 19th century.
In 1912, Santayana resigned his position at Harvard to spend the rest of his life in Europe.
Santayana's one novel, The Last Puritan, is a Bildungsroman, centering on the personal growth of its protagonist, Oliver Alden. His Persons and Places is an autobiography. These works also contain many of his sharper opinions and bons mots. He wrote books and essays on a wide range of subjects, including philosophy of a less technical sort, literary criticism, the history of ideas, politics, human nature, morals, the influence of religion on culture and social psychology, all with considerable wit and humour.
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 Alexis de Tocqueville, Santayana observed American culture and character from a foreigner's point of view. Like William James, his friend and mentor, he wrote philosophy in a literary way. Ezra Pound includes Santayana among his many cultural references in The Cantos, notably in "Canto LXXXI" and "Canto XCV". Santayana is usually considered an American writer, although he declined to become an American citizen, resided in Fascist Italy for decades, and said that he was most comfortable, intellectually and , at Oxford University. Although an atheist, Santayana considered himself an "aesthetics Catholic" and spent the last decade of his life in Rome under the care of .[ "George Santayana, 88, Dies in Rome". Harvard Crimson death notice of September 29, 1952. . 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.] Upon his death, he did not want to be buried in consecrated land, which made his burial problematic in Italy. Finally, the Spanish consulate in Rome agreed that he be buried in the Pantheon of the Obra Pía Española, in the Campo Verano in Rome.
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
pragmatism 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, Santayana was committed to metaphysical naturalism. He believed that human cognition, cultural practices, and social institutions have evolved so as to harmonize with the conditions present in their environment. Their value may then be adjudged by the extent to which they facilitate human happiness. The alternate title to The Life of Reason, "the Phases of Human Progress", is indicative of this metaphysics stance.
Santayana was an early adherent of epiphenomenalism, but also admired the classical materialism of Democritus and Lucretius. (Of the three authors on whom he wrote in Three Philosophical Poets, Santayana speaks most favorably of Lucretius). He held Spinoza's writings in high regard, calling him his "master and model".[George Santayana (1948–1952), The Letters of George Santayana, Book Eight, p. 8:39]
Although an atheist,["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 Soliloquy 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.] 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 supremacist and eugenic views. He believed should be discouraged from "intermarriage with inferior stock".
Legacy
Santayana is remembered in large part for his
, 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.[Michael K. Potter. Bertrand Russell's Ethics. London and New York: Continuum, 2006. Pp. xiii, 185. , p.4] 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, and Wallace Stevens. Stevens was especially influenced by Santayana's aesthetics and became a friend even though Stevens did not take courses taught by Santayana.[Lensing, George S. (1986). Wallace Stevens: A Poet's Growth. LSU Press. 313 pp. . p.12-23.][Saatkamp, Herman, " George Santayana " The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2010 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)]
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.[ Religious Naturalism Today, pp. 21–37] English mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead quotes Santayana extensively in his Masterpiece Process and Reality (1929).[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.]
Chuck Jones used Santayana's description of fanaticism as "redoubling your effort after you've forgotten your aim" to describe his cartoons starring Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner.[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).]
In popular culture
Santayana's passing is referenced in the lyrics to singer-songwriter
Billy Joel's 1989 single "We Didn't Start the Fire".
[ We Didn't Start the Fire . BillyJoel.com. Retrieved September 25, 2016.]
Santayana’s quotes about fanaticism and forgetting the past are mentioned in the episode “Appointment in Crime Alley.”
The quote "Only the dead have seen the end of war" is frequently attributed or misattributed to Plato; an early example of this misattribution (if it is indeed misattributed) is found in General Douglas MacArthur's Farewell Speech given to the Corps of Cadets at West Point in 1962.
Awards
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Royal Society of Literature Benson Medal, 1925.
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Columbia University Butler Gold Medal, 1945.
[George Santayana; William G. Holzberger (Editor). (2006). The Letters of George Santayana, Book Seven, 1941–1947. (MIT Press (MA), Hardcover, 9780262195560, 569pp.) (p. 143).]
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Honorary degree from the University of Wisconsin, 1911.
Bibliography
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1894. Sonnets and Other Verses.
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1896. .
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1899. Lucifer: A Theological Tragedy.
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1900. Interpretations of Poetry and Religion.
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1901. A Hermit of Carmel and Other Poems.
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1905–1906. , 5 vols.
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1910. Three Philosophical Poets: Lucretius, Dante, and Goethe.
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1913. Winds of Doctrine: Studies in Contemporary Opinion.
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1915. Egotism in German Philosophy.
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1920. Character and Opinion in the United States: With Reminiscences of William James and Josiah Royce and Academic Life in America.
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1920. Little Essays, Drawn From the Writings of George Santayana, by Logan Pearsall Smith, with the Collaboration of the Author.
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1922. Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies.
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1922. Poems.
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1923. .
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1926. Dialogues in Limbo
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1927. Platonism and the Spiritual Life.
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1927–40. The Realms of Being, 4 vols.
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1931. The Genteel Tradition at Bay.
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1933. Some Turns of Thought in Modern Philosophy: Five Essays
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1935. .
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1936. Obiter Scripta: Lectures, Essays and Reviews. Justus Buchler and Benjamin Schwartz, eds.
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1944. Persons and Places.
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1945. The Middle Span.
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1946. The Idea of Christ in the Gospels; or, God in Man: A Critical Essay.
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1948. Dialogues in Limbo, With Three New Dialogues.
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1951. Dominations and Powers: Reflections on Liberty, Society, and Government.
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1953. My Host The World
Posthumous edited/selected works
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1955. The Letters of George Santayana. Daniel Cory, ed. Charles Scribner's Sons. New York. (296 letters)
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1956. Essays in Literary Criticism of George Santayana. Irving Singer, ed.
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1957. The Idler and His Works, and Other Essays. Daniel Cory, ed.
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1967. The Genteel Tradition: Nine Essays by George Santayana. Douglas L. Wilson, ed.
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1967. George Santayana's America: Essays on Literature and Culture. James Ballowe, ed.
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1967. Animal Faith and Spiritual Life: Previously Unpublished and Uncollected Writings by George Santayana With Critical Essays on His Thought. John Lachs, ed.
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1968. Santayana on America: Essays, Notes, and Letters on American Life, Literature, and Philosophy. Richard Colton Lyon, ed.
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1968. Selected Critical Writings of George Santayana, 2 vols. Norman Henfrey, ed.
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1969. Physical Order and Moral Liberty: Previously Unpublished Essays of George Santayana. John and Shirley Lachs, eds.
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1979. The Complete Poems of George Santayana: A Critical Edition. Edited, with an introduction, by W. G. Holzberger. Bucknell University Press.
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1995. The Birth of Reason and Other Essays. Daniel Cory, ed., with an Introduction by Herman J. Saatkamp, Jr. Columbia Univ. Press.
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2009. The Essential Santayana. Selected Writings Edited by the Santayana Edition, Compiled and with an introduction by Martin A. Coleman. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
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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.
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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.
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1986. Persons and Places. Santayana's autobiography, incorporating Persons and Places, 1944; The Middle Span, 1945; and My Host the World, 1953.
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1988 (1896). .
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1990 (1900). Interpretations of Poetry and Religion.
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1994 (1935). .
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The Letters of George Santayana. Containing over 3,000 of his letters, many discovered posthumously, to more than 350 recipients.
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2001. Book One, 1868–1909.
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2001. Book Two, 1910–1920.
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2002. Book Three, 1921–1927.
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2003. Book Four, 1928–1932.
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2003. Book Five, 1933–1936.
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2004. Book Six, 1937–1940.
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2006. Book Seven, 1941–1947.
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2008. Book Eight, 1948–1952.
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2011. George Santayana's Marginalia: A Critical Selection, Books 1 and 2. Compiled by John O. McCormick and edited by Kristine W. Frost.
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The Life of Reason in five books.
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2011 (1905). Reason in Common Sense.
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2013 (1905). Reason in Society.
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2014 (1905). Reason in Religion.
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2015 (1905). Reason in Art.
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2016 (1906). Reason in Science.
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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
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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
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American philosophy
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List of American philosophers
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Scientistic materialism
Further reading
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W. Arnett, 1955. Santayana and the Sense of Beauty, Bloomington, Indiana University Press.
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H. T. Kirby-Smith, 1997. A Philosophical Novelist: George Santayana and the Last Puritan. Southern Illinois University Press.
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Jeffers, Thomas L., 2005. Apprenticeships: The Bildungsroman from Goethe to Santayana. New York: Palgrave: 159–84.
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Corliss Lamont (ed., with the assistance of Mary Redmer), 1959. Dialogue on George Santayana. New York: Horizon Press.
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McCormick, John, 1987. George Santayana: A Biography. Alfred A. Knopf. The biography.
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Padrón, Charles and Skowroński, Krzysztof Piotr, eds. 2018. The Life of Reason in an Age of Terrorism , Leiden-Boston: Brill.
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Herman Saatkamp 2021, A Life of Scholarship with Santayana , edited by Charles Padrón and Krzysztof Piotr Skowroński, Leiden-Boston: Brill.
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Irving Singer, 2000. George Santayana, Literary Philosopher. Yale University Press.
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Skowroński, Krzysztof Piotr, 2007. Santayana and America: Values, Liberties, Responsibility , Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
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Flamm, Matthew Caleb and Skowroński, Krzysztof Piotr (eds), 2007. Under Any Sky: Contemporary Readings of George Santayana . Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
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Miguel Alfonso, Ricardo (ed.), 2010, La estética de George Santayana, Madrid: Verbum.
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Patella, Giuseppe, Belleza, arte y vida. La estética mediterranea de George Santayana, Valencia, PUV, 2010, pp. 212. .
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Pérez Firmat, Gustavo. Tongue Ties: Logo-Eroticism in Anglo-Hispanic Literature. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
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Moreno, Daniel. Santayana the Philosopher: Philosophy as a Form of Life. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 2015. Translated by Charles Padron.
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Kremplewska, Katarzyna. George Santayana's Political Hermeneutics. Brill, 2022.
External links
