Santayana The Philosopher

Author : Irving Singer
Publisher : Yale University Press
Page : 233 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2008-10-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780300128536

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George Santayana by Irving Singer Pdf

George Santayana was unique in his contribution to American culture. For almost sixty years before his death in 1952, he combined literary and philosophical talents, writing not only important works of philosophy but also a best-selling novel, volumes of poetry, and much literary criticism. In this fascinating portrait of Santayana’s thought and complex personality, Irving Singer explores the full range of his harmonization of the literary and the philosophical. Singer shows how Santayana’s genius consisted in his imaginative ability to turn various types of personal alienation into creative elements that recur throughout his books. Singer points out that Santayana was a professional philosopher who addressed immediate problems of existence, a materialist in philosophy who believed in both a life of spirit and a life of reason, a product of American pragmatism who nevertheless rebelled against it, a Spaniard who wrote only in English, an American author who spent the last forty years of his life in different European countries. Against the grain of most twentieth-century philosophy, Santayana kept in view questions that matter to us all in our search for meaningful and satisfying lives.

Author : Daniel Moreno
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 231 pages
File Size : 40,7 Mb
Release : 2015-03-06
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781611486568

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Santayana the Philosopher by Daniel Moreno Pdf

Regarding Santayana it has been claimed that he lacks a system while contradicting himself in outrageous ways. An attentive analysis of his complete œuvre, however, reveals something else entirely. It is not easy to classify a thinker as a Platonic materialist, an ironic nihilist, a spiritual atheist, and a conservative without political commitment, but, if one respects his own language, one discerns an astonishing, little-known Santayana, whose philosophical leitmotif consists in: 1) detecting the numerous “false steps,” logical and moral, supplied by the imagination when it confuses things with the names that designate them, or the world with the feelings that it provokes in the human animal—these errors assume diverse faces: pantheism, moralism, egotism, subjectivism, transcendentalism, Platonism, Puritanism, and utopianism; 2) avoiding these illusions in such a way as to keep the spiritual door open as a form of life to be lived out in an honest fashion; 3) recognizing the natural origin of these temptations and asking oneself what moves humans to succumb imperceptibly to these mistakes, at times tragic, at others comical, and what precautions one can take to remain cognizant of the deceitful leaps that can hijack one’s life; and 4) proposing as an alternative the radical distinction between essence and existence, which leads him to distinguish four realms of being: the realm of essence, the realm of matter, the realm of truth, and the realm of spirit. Essence as logical identity, matter as contingent existence, truth as frozen history, and spirit as the flames that part from contingency and approximate the eternal. An attempt has been made in this book to expand on and clarify these questions.

Author : George Santayana
Publisher : Open Road Media
Page : 839 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2017-04-11
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781504044417

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The Life of Reason by George Santayana Pdf

George Santayana’s renowned work of moral philosophy outlines his vision of the ideal life. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. George Santayana’s The Life of Reason stands as one of the most influential and beautifully written works of philosophical naturalism. In it, Santayana articulates his vision of human progression from chaos to reason and the pursuit of the ideal life. Focusing his thought on the lived experiences of people, these phases are traced through humanity’s many endeavors, including art, science, politics, religion, friendship, and reason. Drawing on a range of influences, from Democritus and Aristotle to Spinoza and Schopenhauer, Santayana develops a materialist system of thought that stresses the importance of imagination and spiritual experience. Originally published in five volumes, from 1905 to 1906, The Life of Reason is Santayana’s most complete statement of moral philosophy and an inspiring account of human dignity. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

Author : Timothy L. S. Sprigge
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 271 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2012-10-12
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781134816729

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Santayana by Timothy L. S. Sprigge Pdf

This classic study of Santayana was the first book to appear in the Arguments of the Philosophers series. Growing interest in the work of this important American philosopher has prompted this new edition of the book complete with a new preface by the author reassessing his own ideas about Santayana and reflecting the new interest in the philosopher's work. A select bibliography of works published about Santayana since the book's first appearance is also included.

Author : George Santayana
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 403 pages
File Size : 51,8 Mb
Release : 2011
Category : Art
ISBN : 9780262016742

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The Life of Reason by George Santayana Pdf

Santayana's Life of Reason, published in five books from 1905 to 1906, ranks as one of the greatest works in modern philosophical naturalism. Acknowledging the natural material bases of human life, Santayana traces the development of the human capacity for appreciating and cultivating the ideal. It is a capacity he exhibits as he articulates a continuity running through animal impulse, practical intelligence, and ideal harmony in reason, society, art, religion, and science. The work is an exquisitely rendered vision of human life lived sanely. In this first book of the work, Santayana provides an account of how the human animal develops instinct, passion, and chaotic experience into rationality and ideal life. Inspired by Aristotle's De Anima, Darwin's evolutionary theory, and William James's The Principles of Psychology, Santayana contends that the requirements of action in a hazardous and uncertain environment are the sources of the development of mind. More specifically, instinct and imagination are crucial to the emergence of reason from chaos. Separating himself from the typical thought of the time by his recognition of the imagination, Santayana in this volume offers extensive critiques of various philosophies of mind, including those of Kant and the British empiricists. This Critical Edition, volume VII of The Works of George Santayana, includes a chronology, notes, bibliography, textual commentary, lists of variants, and other tools useful to Santayana scholars.

Author : George Santayana
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 129 pages
File Size : 54,8 Mb
Release : 2014-10-09
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781107437647

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Some Turns of Thought in Modern Philosophy by George Santayana Pdf

Originally published in 1933, this book contains five philosophical essays by the famous philosopher and essayist George Santayana. The topics cover both older philosophy, such as those of Locke, as well as philosophy's relationship to newer discoveries, such as the theory of relativity. This book will be of value to anyone with an interest in twentieth-century philosophy and the writings of Santayana.

Author : George Santayana
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 280 pages
File Size : 41,6 Mb
Release : 2017-07-12
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781351529389

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Character and Opinion in the United States by George Santayana Pdf

George Santayana was one of the most influential twentieth-century philosophers. Because of his broad-ranging interests and lack of any permanent home in one particular country, he has often been stereotyped as a meditative philosopher removed from the world, living in what he himself called the "realm of spirit" among eternal essences. While there is some truth in this characterization, it is also true that Santayana was a penetrating analyst and critic of contemporary societies.'Character and Opinion in the United States' is his comprehensive critique of American thought and civilization and reflects the detached cosmopolitan perspective that lent his criticism its characteristic objectivity and strength. Santayana's subject here is the conflict of materialism and idealism in American life. In his view there exists a dualism in the American mind: One side, dealing with religion, literature, philosophy, and morality, tended to stay with inherited, old doctrines-the genteel tradition-and failed to keep pace with the other, practical side and its new developments in industry, invention, and social organization. Santayana traces the first mentality to Calvinism and its sense of sin, an attitude out of keeping with a new civilization and the dominance of practical interests. As a consequence of separating philosophy from everyday life, its study merely served religious and moral interests cut off from the free search for truth. At the heart of the book is Santayana's examination of the influential thought of William James and Josiah Royce, who typified for him the dilemma of American thought. The subordination of thought to social form and custom underlies Santayana's sharp critique of academic philosophy at Harvard where he early on studied and taught. He was disturbed by the very idea of philosophy as an academic discipline. Philosophy, he felt, should be an individual, original creation, "something dark, perilous, untested, and not ripe to be taught" Santayana's analysis of how social imperatives may impede the pursuit of knowledge remains pertinent to contemporary intellectual debate. This volume ill be of interest to philosophers, intellectual historians, and American studies specialists.

Author : George Santayana
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 478 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2020-12-20
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1034132415

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The Life of Reason (Part I) (Esprios Classics) by George Santayana Pdf

Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás, known in English as George Santayana (1863 - 1952), was a philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. Originally from Spain, Santayana was raised and educated in the US from the age of eight and identified himself as an American, although he always retained a valid Spanish passport. At the age of 48, Santayana left his position at Harvard and returned to Europe permanently. Santayana is popularly known for aphorisms, such as "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it", "Only the dead have seen the end of war", and the definition of beauty as "pleasure objectified". Although an atheist, he treasured the Spanish Catholic values, practices, and worldview in which he was raised.

Author : George Santayana
Publisher : The Floating Press
Page : 162 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2014-07-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781776584079

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Winds of Doctrine by George Santayana Pdf

Spanish-born philosopher George Santayana made a number of significant contributions to his academic discipline, but his popularity stretched beyond the ivory tower when he began to publish his essays and observations for a wider audience. The collection Winds of Doctrine offers readers a glimpse of Santayana's personal perspective with his insightful assessments of several influential philosophers and literary figures.

Author : Edward W. Lovely
Publisher : Lexington Books
Page : 258 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2012-09-28
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780739176276

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George Santayana's Philosophy of Religion by Edward W. Lovely Pdf

George Santayana (1862-1952) of Spanish descent, and generally claimed to be in the canon of American philosophers, was substantially influenced by his Roman Catholic origins in his philosophical disposition toward the value of tradition, religious symbols and dogma. His philosophical project sustained a respectful attitude toward the spiritual value of orthodox religion while the thrust of his philosophy was naturalistic and materialistic throughout. There is a perception by some scholars that Santayana’s philosophy evolved from a humanistic perspective to a more spiritual one in his later years. It is the position of this thesis that his philosophy, at the “core” depicting a harmonious striving toward individual happiness, remained essentially consistent from his earliest publication of Interpretations of Poetry and Religion and The Life of Reason through his later works of Scepticism and Animal Faith, Realms of Being, Dominations and Powers and The Idea of Christ in the Gospels. Santayana’s philosophical approach is both phenomenological and social constructionist in its methodology, significantly preempting the methodology of social constructionist theology and a post-modern interpretation of religion. His idiosyncratic phenomenological approach is compared with a “benchmark” methodology of Edmund Husserl, the generally accepted founder of the phenomenological method. There are also important similarities between Santayana’s phenomenological approach and those of Charles Sanders Peirce and Alfred North Whitehead. The basis for the comparison of the phenomenological methodology of Santayana and Husserl is their mutually similar fundamental theory of intuited essence. Santayana’s contribution to religious studies is not only philosophical but also theological where he has utilized Christian theological language in transposing and interpolating his philosophy of religion to the Christian drama of the salvational Christ. Santayana’s essay “Ultimate Religion” reflects his perspective of a disillusioned but still spiritual vision incorporating the piety, discipline, and spirituality; of a life of reason. Within the framework of this “model” Santayana’s philosophy of religion is developed and explored. Finally, the relevance of Santayana’s philosophy of religion to contemporary religious studies and selected religious issues is addressed with a delineation and discussion of some important aspects of his philosophical vision.

Author : George Santayana
Publisher : Courier Corporation
Page : 333 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2013-02-20
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780486158327

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Scepticism and Animal Faith by George Santayana Pdf

Detailed presentation of American philosopher's pragmatic concept of epistemology, isolation of realms of existents and subsistents. Chapters include "There is No First Principle of Criticism," "Dogma and Doubt," and "The Discovery of Essence."

Author : George Santayana
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 324 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 1980
Category : Common sense
ISBN : STANFORD:36105004516998

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Reason in Common Sense by George Santayana Pdf

Author : George Santayana
Publisher : Union Square & Co.
Page : 177 pages
File Size : 53,5 Mb
Release : 2012-04-16
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781435142237

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Three Philosophical Poets by George Santayana Pdf

“I am no specialist in the study of Lucretius; I am not a Dante scholar nor a Goethe scholar….My excuse for writing about them, notwithstanding, is merely the human excuse which every new poet has for writing about the spring. They have attracted me; they have moved me to reflection; they have revealed to me certain aspects of nature and of philosophy which I am prompted by mere sincerity to express, if anybody seems interested or willing to listen.” The modesty exhibited in the above disclaimer—from Santayana’s preface to Three Philosophical Poets—should be viewed in the context of the author’s extraordinary impact as a philosopher and teacher. The Sense of Beauty has claim to being the first major work on aesthetics written in the United States; the multivolume The Life of Reason is arguably the first extended analysis of pragmatism anywhere. Among Santayana’s many well-known Harvard students, Wallace Stevens has acknowledged a clear debt to his work. Based on a course Santayana taught at Harvard, Three Philosophical Poets was first delivered to the public as a series of lectures at Columbia University in 1910. Santayana’s lifelong, learned meditation on the relationship between philosophy and art is apparent. (Santayana’s own prose style has long been considered among the most eloquent in all of philosophy.) Here, he discusses the chief phases of European philosophy—naturalism, supernaturalism, and romanticism—as they are set forth and epitomized by the works of Lucretius, Dante, and Goethe, respectively. Praise for Three Philosophical Poets and its author “[A] brilliant and admirable little book.” —T. S. Eliot “The exquisite and memorable way in which he has always said things has given so much delight that we accept what he says as we accept our own civilization. His pages are part of the douceur de vivre.” —Wallace Stevens “Santayana was the real excitement for me at Harvard, especially Three PhilosophicalPoets….It really fixed my view of what poetry should ultimately be.” —Conrad Aiken

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 1971
Category : Electronic
ISBN : OCLC:916078187

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The Philosophy of George Santayana by Anonim Pdf

Author : George Santayana
Publisher : Indiana University Press
Page : 705 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2009
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780253221056

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The Essential Santayana by George Santayana Pdf

Although he was born in Spain, George Santayana (1863-1952) became a uniquely American philosopher, critic, poet, and best-selling novelist. Along with his Harvard colleagues William James and Josiah Royce, he is best known as one of the founders of American pragmatism and recognized for his insights into the theory of knowledge, metaphysics, and moral philosophy. The Essential Santayana presents a selection of Santayana's most important and influential literary and philosophical work. Martin A. Coleman's critical introduction sets Santayana into the American philosophical tradition and provides context for contemporary readers, many of whom may be approaching Santayana's writings for the first time. This landmark collection reveals the intellectual and literary diversity of one of American philosophy's most lively minds.