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The Essential Santayana: Selected Writings
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.
- GenresPhilosophy
704 pages, Paperback
First published January 9, 2009
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May 29, 2012"It is not by deduction from first principles arbitrarily chosen that human reasoning actually proceeds, but by loose habits of mental equivocation which such principles at best may exhibit afterwards in idealized form. Moreover, if we could strip our thought for the arena of a perfect logic, we should be performing, perhaps, a remarkable dialectical feat; but this feat would be a mere addition to the complexities of nature, and no simplification. This motley world, besides its other antics, would then contain logicians and their sports."
mwah! Thanks Santayana! I ended up not finishing you because I liked your writing about skepticism so much I went over to the Oxford Skepticism handbook (ed. Greco) to get a less eloquent, more up-to-date approach. Not sure if that was the right choice. Now back fully in the throes of analytic epistemology, I miss your snazzy, bold integrity!
mwah! Thanks Santayana! I ended up not finishing you because I liked your writing about skepticism so much I went over to the Oxford Skepticism handbook (ed. Greco) to get a less eloquent, more up-to-date approach. Not sure if that was the right choice. Now back fully in the throes of analytic epistemology, I miss your snazzy, bold integrity!
June 24, 2020
Some good essays, some not-so-good ones. Whenever he starts talking about essence and spirit my eyes would glaze over...
The pieces worth reading:
* The Poetry of Barbarism
* A General Confession
* His work on Josiah Royce and William James
* Philosophical Heresy
* The Genteel Tradition at Bay
* The Genteel Tradition in American Philosophy
The pieces worth reading:
* The Poetry of Barbarism
* A General Confession
* His work on Josiah Royce and William James
* Philosophical Heresy
* The Genteel Tradition at Bay
* The Genteel Tradition in American Philosophy
December 23, 2019
Everything in nature is lyrical in its ideal essence, tragic in its fate, and comic in its existence.
December 23, 2019
Sanity is a madness put to good uses.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews