Martin A. Coleman The Essential Santayana Selected Writings 2009

  Essential Essential The santayana ana

  Essential S e l e c t e d W r i t i n g s S e l e c t e d W r i t i n g s

  

THE

ESSENTIAL

SANTAYANA

  

THE

ESSENTIAL

SANTAYANA

Selected Writings

edited by The Santayana Edition

compiled and with an introduction

by Martin A. Coleman

  

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University

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This book is dedicated to

A ^NGUS K

^ERR

• L ^AWSON

  whose editorial work and scholarship

  have enriched and enlivened Santayana studies.

  “[T]he spirit . . . has perceived that . . . it is in the hands of some alien and

inscrutable power. . . . I stand before [this power] simply receptive, somewhat

as, in Rome I might stand before the great fountain of Trevi. There I see jets

and cascades flowing in separate streams and in divers directions. I am not sure

that a single Pontifex Maximus designed it all, and led all those musical waters

into just those channels. Some streams may have dried up or been diverted

since the creation; some rills may have been added today by fresh rains from

heaven; behind one of those artificial rocks some little demon, of his own

free will, may even now be playing havoc with the conduits; and who knows

how many details, in my image, may not have been misplaced or multiplied by optical tricks of my own? Yet here, for the spirit, is one total marvellous impression, one thunderous force, confronting me with this theatrical but admirable spectacle.”

“Ultimate Religion” ( Essential Santayana, 340–41; originally appeared in Obiter

Scripta, 284–86). Photograph courtesy of Herman J. Saatkamp Jr.

  Contents

Acknowledgments xiii

Chronology of the Life and Work

of George Santayana xv

Bibliographical Abbreviations xix

  

About This Book xxv

Introduction: The Essential Santayana xxvii

  1 A General Confession (1940)

  4 My Place, Time, and Ancestry (1944)

  23 Epilogue on My Host, The World (1949)

  30 II. S KEPTICISM AND O NTOLOGY

  39 Philosophical Heresy (1915)

  44 Preface [Scepticism and Animal Faith] (1923)

  51 There Is No First Principle of Criticism (1923)

  55 Dogma and Doubt (1923)

  58 Wayward Scepticism (1923)

  61 Ultimate Scepticism (1923)

  67 Nothing Given Exists (1923)

  72 The Discovery of Essence (1923)

  76 The Watershed of Criticism (1923)

  82 Knowledge Is Faith Mediated by Symbols (1923)

  88 Belief in Substance (1923)

  98 Literary Psychology (1923) 104 The Implied Being of Truth (1923)

  110 Comparison with Other Criticisms of Knowledge (1923)

  116 Normal Madness (1925)

  128 Some Meanings of the Word “Is” (1924)

  138 149 Preface to Realms of Being (1927) Realms of Being ng (1927) Various Approaches to Essence (1927) 158

  The Being Proper to Essences (1927) 168

  The Scope of Natural Philosophy (1930) 173

  

Indispensable Properties of Substance (1930)

179

  Teleology (1930) 188

  The Psyche (1930) 198

  There Are No Necessary Truths (1937) 214

  Facts Arbitrary, Logic Ideal (1937) 220

  Interplay between Truth and Logic (1937) 225

  Dramatic Truth (1937) 231

  Moral Truth (1937) 236

  Love and Hatred of Truth (1937) 243

  Denials of Truth (1937) 253

  III. R ATIONAL L

  IFE

  IN A RT , R ELIGION , AND S PIRITUALITY 261

The Elements and Function of Poetry (1900)

  265 Introduction

  [The Life of Reason] (1905) 282 The Birth of Reason (1905)

  297 How Religion May Be an Embodiment of Reason (1905)

  303 Justification of Art (1905)

  309 The Criterion of Taste (1905)

  320 Art and Happiness (1905)

  331 Ultimate Religion (1933)

  338 The Nature of Spirit (1940)

  346 Liberation (1933)

  357 Union (1933)

  375

  

IV. E THICS AND P OLITICS 409

Prerational Morality (1906)

  412 Rational Ethics (1906)

  422 Post-Rational Morality (1906)

  435 Hypostatic Ethics (1913)

  452 Public Opinion (1951)

  461 Government of the People (1951)

  464 Who Are “The People”? (1951)

  466 The United States as Leader (1951) 470

  Conclusion [Dominations and Powers] (1951) 474

  ITERATURE , C ULTURE , AND C RITICISM 479 Sonnet III (1886)

  482 To W. P. (1894)

  483 Prologue

  [The Last Puritan] (1935) 486 Epilogue

  [The Last Puritan] (1935) 493 The Poetry of Barbarism (1900)

  497 Emerson (1900)

  519 The Genteel Tradition in American Philosophy (1911)

  526 English Liberty in America (1920)

  541 The Genteel Tradition at Bay (1931)

  555 The Ethics of Nietzsche (1915)

  578 William James (1920)

  584 Josiah Royce (1920)

  595

Dewey’s Naturalistic Metaphysics (1936)

  609 Index 623

Acknowledgments

  The editors of the Santayana Edition would like to thank the people who helped in the production of The Essential Santayana.

  John Lachs, Herman J. Saatkamp Jr., William G. Holzberger, and Angus Kerr- Lawson laid the foundation for The Essential Santayana through many years of documentary research, editorial work, critical scholarship, and conversations with publishers.

  We are grateful to the many scholars who answered our requests for sug- gestions for and comments on the content and organization of The Essential

  

Santayana, including Thomas Alexander, Michael Brodrick, James Campbell,

  Matthew Caleb Flamm, James Gouinlock, Larry Hickman, Nathan Houser, Till Kinzel, Tom Kirby-Smith, Marta Kunecka, Henry Samuel Levinson, Richard C. Lyon, John McDermott, Daniel Moreno-Moreno, Richard M. Rubin, Krzysztof Skowroñski, John J. Stuhr, Glenn Tiller, and Jessica Wahman.

  We appreciate the efforts of our graduate student interns, including Geoffery

  E. Gagen, who copied and scanned text selections; Christine McNulty, who compiled and calculated survey results; Carrie Torrella-McCord, who proofread; Christine Sego-Caldwell, who proofread and helped research information for the headnotes; and Jay Perry, who researched publication information.

  The Santayana Edition Marianne S. Wokeck, Editor Martin A. Coleman, Associate Editor Kristine W. Frost, Associate Editor Johanna E. Resler, Assistant Editor David E. Spiech, Assistant Textual Editor http://www.iupui.edu/~santedit/

  

Chronology of the Life and

Work of George Santayana

  Adapted and abridged from William G. Holzberger, “Chronology,” Letters of

  George Santayana, 1:443–60

  1849 Josefina Borrás (c. 1826–1912), George Santayana’s mother, marries George Sturgis (1817–57) of Boston, aboard British warship in Manila Bay.

  1857 George Sturgis dies in Manila at age forty. 1862 Josefina Borrás Sturgis marries Agustín Santayana (1814–93) in Madrid. 1863 George Santayana born on 16 December at No. 69, Calle Ancha de San Bernardo, Madrid.

  1864 Santayana christened Jorge Agustín Nicolás on 1 January in parish church of San Marcos, Madrid. 1868 (or 1869) Santayana’s mother, with daughters Susana and Josephine, moves to Boston to honor first husband’s wish that children be raised in

  America; Santayana remains with father in Spain. 1872 Santayana and father travel to America in June; father returns to Ávila several months later.

  1882 Santayana graduates from Boston Latin School; attends Harvard College in autumn. 1883 Santayana visits father in Spain for first time since coming to America.

  Advised by William James at Harvard not to pursue philosophy. 1885 Meets John Francis (“Frank”) Stanley, 2d Earl Russell and elder brother of Bertrand Russell, who becomes close friend.

  1886 Santayana’s Bachelor of Arts degree is awarded summa cum laude and in absentia. Begins study in Germany. 1889 Santayana completes dissertation on “Lotze’s System of Philosophy” under direction of Josiah Royce; awarded Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees by Harvard University; begins as Instructor in Philosophy at Harvard. 1893 Santayana’s father dies at age 79 during summer in Ávila; Santayana’s student and friend Warwick Potter dies in October; at end of this year

  Santayana undergoes his metanoia or fundamental change of heart resulting in renunciation of the world. 1896 Santayana’s first book-length philosophical work is published by

  Scribner’s: The Sense of Beauty: Being the Outlines of Aesthetic Theory. Spends year at Cambridge University; appears in court in October to testify on behalf of Frank Russell, defending against charges of estranged wife. 1897 Santayana resumes teaching at Harvard; lives with mother. 1898 Santayana promoted from instructor to assistant professor. 1899 Santayana’s Lucifer: A Theological Tragedy published.

  1900 Interpretations of Poetry and Religion published. 1904 Santayana sails from New York to Plymouth, England, in mid-July; visits Paris, Rome, Venice, Naples, Pompeii, Sicily, and Greece.

  1905 Visits Egypt, Palestine, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Damascus, Baalbeck, Beirut, Athens, Constantinople, Budapest, and Vienna. While still abroad, Santayana invited by Harvard to become Hyde Lecturer at the Sorbonne for 1905–6. First four volumes of The Life of Reason; or, the Phases of

  Human Progress published.

  1906 Fifth volume of The Life of Reason published. Santayana returns to America in September; resumes teaching at Harvard. 1907 Santayana promoted from assistant professor to full professor. 1911 In April Santayana delivers final lecture at Harvard. Travels to Wisconsin and California. 1912 Santayana departs America for last time on 24 January. Mother dies on 5 February. 1913 Winds of Doctrine: Studies in Contemporary Opinion published. 1914 World War I breaks out; Santayana remains in Oxford until April 1919. 1916 Egotism in German Philosophy published. 1920 Santayana begins spending winters in Rome; continues to summer in Paris, Ávila, Glion, at Lake Geneva, or Cortina d’Ampezzo. 1923 Scepticism and Animal Faith and last collection of Santayana’s poetry to appear during his lifetime, Poems: Selected by the Author and Revised, published. 1925 Dialogues in Limbo published. 1927 Santayana meets Daniel Cory, age 22, who will become his assistant and friend. The Realm of Essence: Book First of Realms of Being published. 1928 Santayana declines offer of the Norton Chair of Poetry at Harvard for 1928–29. Half sister Susana dies in Ávila, on 10 February, at age 77. 1930 Half sister Josephine dies in Ávila, on 15 October, at age 77. The Realm of Matter: Book Second of Realms of Being published. 1931 The Genteel Tradition at Bay published. In December Santayana declines offer to become William James Professor of Philosophy at Harvard. 1932 Santayana attends philosophical congress commemorating tercentenary of Spinoza’s birth, held at The Hague on 6–10 September; delivers a lecture on “Ultimate Religion.” Attends meeting in London to commemorate tercentenary of John Locke’s birth; on 19 October delivers address on “Locke and the Frontiers of Common Sense.” 1933 Some Turns of Thought in Modern Philosophy published. 1935 The Last Puritan: A Memoir in the Form of a Novel published in London (published in New York the next year). 1936 The Last Puritan becomes Book-of-the-Month Club bestseller. 1937 The Realm of Truth: Book Third of Realms of Being published in London (published in New York the next year). 1938 The first book-length biography, George Santayana, by George Washburne Howgate published.

  1939 World War II breaks out in Europe; Santayana denied regular long-term visa by Swiss officials, decides to remain in Italy. 1940 The Realm of Spirit: Book Fourth of Realms of Being published. The Philosophy of George Santayana published. 1941 Santayana moves into nursing home operated by Blue Sisters of the Little Company of Mary, an order of Roman Catholic Irish nuns. 1944 Persons and Places published; becomes bestseller. 1945 The Middle Span published. Santayana awarded Nicholas Murray Butler Medal by Columbia University. 1946 The Idea of Christ in the Gospels; or, God in Man: A Critical Essay published. 1948 Dialogues in Limbo, With Three New Dialogues published. 1951 Dominations and Powers: Reflections on Liberty, Society, and Government published. 1952 On 4 June Santayana falls on the steps of the Spanish Consulate in

  Rome; injuries include three broken ribs, bleeding head wound, and patches of pneumonia on lungs; physician is amazed by Santayana’s recovery. Santayana continues working until increasing blindness and illness make further labor impossible. On 26 September Santayana dies of stomach cancer. On 30 September his body is interred in the Tomb of the Spaniards. 1953 My Host the World published. The Posthumous Poems, together with two early plays, published as The Poet’s Testament: Poems and Two Plays. 1955 The Letters of George Santayana, a selection of two hundred and ninety-six letters to eighty-six recipients, edited by Daniel Cory, published.

  

Bibliographical Abbreviations

  The following is a list of abbreviations and bibliographical references to Santayana’s works and secondary source materials. The abbreviations are used for books cited in the introductions and head notes. Citations from the current work are refer- enced by ( ES, page number).

  Primary Sources BR Birth of Reason & Other Essays. Edited by Daniel Cory. New York and London: Columbia University Press, 1968.

  

COUS Character and Opinion in the United States: With Reminiscences of William

James and Josiah Royce and Academic Life in America. New York: Charles

  Scribner’s Sons; London: Constable and Co. Ltd.; Toronto: McLeod, 1920. Volume eleven of the critical edition of The Works of George Santayana (WGS ).

  CP The Complete Poems of George Santayana: A Critical Edition. Edited by

  William G. Holzberger. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press; London: Associated University Presses, 1979.

  

DL Dialogues in Limbo. London: Constable and Co. Ltd., 1925; New York:

  Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1926. Volume fourteen of the critical edition ( WGS ).

  DP Dominations and Powers: Reflections on Liberty, Society, and Government.

  New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons; London: Constable and Co. Ltd., 1951. Volume nineteen of the critical edition ( WGS ).

  EGP Egotism in German Philosophy. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons;

  London and Toronto: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1916. Volume ten of the critical edition ( WGS ).

  GTB The Genteel Tradition at Bay. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons;

  London: “The Adelphi,” 1931. Volume seventeen of the critical edition ( WGS ).

  

HC A Hermit of Carmel and Other Poems. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons,

1901; London: R. Brimley Johnson, 1902.

  ICG The Idea of Christ in the Gospels; or, God in Man: A Critical Essay. New

  York: Charles Scribner’s Sons; Toronto: Saunders, 1946. Volume eighteen of the critical edition ( WGS ).

  

IPR Interpretations of Poetry and Religion. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons;

  London: Black, 1900. Volume three of the critical edition ( WGS ) edited by William G. Holzberger and Herman J. Saatkamp Jr., with an introduction by Joel Porte. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1989. (Citations refer to critical edition page numbers.)

  LP The Last Puritan: A Memoir in the Form of a Novel. London: Constable

  and Co. Ltd., 1935; New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1936; Volume four of the critical edition ( WGS ) edited by William G. Holzberger and Herman J. Saatkamp Jr., with an introduction by Irving Singer. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1994. (Citations refer to critical edition page numbers.)

  LGS The Letters of George Santayana. Volume Five (in eight books) of the

  critical edition ( WGS ) edited by William G. Holzberger, Herman J. Saatkamp Jr., and Marianne S. Wokeck, with an introduction by William G. Holzberger. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2000–2008.

  (Citations in the notes refer to book and page number; i.e., LGS, 8:150 is page 150 of Book Eight.)

  LR The Life of Reason: or, the Phases of Human Progress. Five volumes. New

  York: Charles Scribner’s Sons; London: Constable and Co. Ltd., 1905–06. Volume seven of the critical edition of WGS edited by Martin Coleman and Marianne Wokeck, with an introduction by James Gouinlock.

  

LR1 Introduction and Reason in Common Sense. Volume 1, 1905.

LR2 Reason in Society. Volume 2, 1905. LR3 Reason in Religion. Volume 3, 1905. LR4 Reason in Art. Volume 4, 1905. LR5 Reason in Science. Volume 5, 1906. LE Little Essays: Drawn From the Writings of George Santayana by Logan Pearsall Smith, With the Collaboration of the Author. New York: Charles

  Scribner’s Sons; London: Constable and Co. Ltd., 1920.

  

LUC Lucifer: A Theological Tragedy. Chicago and New York: Herbert S. Stone,

1899. LHT Revised limited second edition published as Lucifer, or the Heavenly Truce: A Theological Tragedy. Cambridge, MA: Dunster House; London:

  W. Jackson, 1924.

  OB Obiter Scripta: Lectures, Essays and Reviews. Edited by Justus Buchler

  and Benjamin Schwartz. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons; London: Constable and Co. Ltd., 1936.

  

PP Persons and Places: Fragments of Autobiography. Volume one of the critical

edition ( WGS ) edited by William G. Holzberger and Herman J.

  Saatkamp Jr., with an introduction by Richard C. Lyon. Cambridge,

  MA: The MIT Press, 1986. (Citations refer to critical edition page numbers.)

  PP1 Persons and Places: The Background of My Life. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons; London: Constable and Co. Ltd., 1944. PP2 The Middle Span. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1945; London: Constable and Co. Ltd., 1947.

PP3 My Host the World. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons;

London: Cresset Press, 1953.

POML Physical Order and Moral Liberty. Edited by John Lachs. Nashville, TN:

Vanderbilt University Press, 1969. PSL Platonism and the Spiritual Life. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons;

  London: Constable and Co. Ltd., 1927. Volume fifteen of the critical edition ( WGS ).

  PSA Poems: Selected by the Author and Revised. London: Constable and Co.

  Ltd., 1922; New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1923.

  

PT The Poet’s Testament: Poems and Two Plays. New York: Charles Scribner’s

Sons, 1953. RB Realms of Being. Four volumes. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons;

  London: Constable and Co. Ltd., 1927–40. Volume sixteen of the critical edition ( WGS ).

  

RE The Realm of Essence: Book First of Realms of Being, 1927.

RM The Realm of Matter: Book Second of Realms of Being, 1930.

RT The Realm of Truth: Book Third of Realms of Being. London:

  Constable; Toronto: Macmillan Company, 1937; New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1938.

  

RS The Realm of Spirit: Book Fourth of Realms of Being, 1940.

RB1 Realms of Being. One-volume edition, with a new introduction by the author. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1942.

  SAF Scepticism and Animal Faith: Introduction to a System of Philosophy. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons; London: Constable and Co. Ltd., 1923.

  Volume thirteen of the critical edition ( WGS ).

  SB The Sense of Beauty: Being the Outlines of Aesthetic Theory. New York:

  Charles Scribner’s Sons; London: A. and C. Black, 1896. Volume two of the critical edition ( WGS ) edited by William G. Holzberger and Herman J. Saatkamp Jr., with an introduction by Arthur C. Danto. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1988. (Citations refer to critical edition page numbers.)

  SE Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies. New York: Charles Scribner’s

  Sons; London: Constable and Co. Ltd., 1922. Volume twelve of the critical edition ( WGS ).

  SOV Sonnets and Other Verses. Cambridge and Chicago: Stone and Kimball, 1894. TTMP Some Turns of Thought in Modern Philosophy: Five Essays. New York:

  Charles Scribner’s Sons; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1933. Volume seventeen of the critical edition ( WGS ).

  TPP Three Philosophical Poets: Lucretius, Dante, and Goethe. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1910.

  Volume eight of the critical edition ( WGS ) edited by Martin Coleman and Marianne Wokeck, with an introduction by James Seaton.

  WD Winds of Doctrine: Studies in Contemporary Opinion. New York: Charles

  Scribner’s Sons; London: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd., 1913. Volume nine of the critical edition ( WGS ).

  Secondary Sources

WAGS Arnett, Willard. George Santayana. New York: Washington Square Press,

1968.

  LY Cory, Daniel. Santayana: The Later Years: A Portrait with Letters. New York: George Braziller, 1963.

UAS Flamm, Matthew Caleb, and Krzysztof Piotr Skowroñski, editors. Under

Any Sky: Contemporary Readings of George Santayana. Newcastle upon

  Tyne, United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007.

  AFSL Lachs, John, editor. Animal Faith and the Spiritual Life. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1967. JLGS Lachs, John. George Santayana. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1988. OnS Lachs, John. On Santayana. Belmont, CA; London: Wadsworth, 2001.

SPSL Levinson, Henry S. Santayana, Pragmatism, and the Spiritual Life. Chapel

Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992.

GSB McCormick, John. George Santayana: A Biography. New York: Alfred A.

  Knopf, 1987.

  BSS Overheard in Seville: Bulletin of the Santayana Society. Edited by Angus Kerr-Lawson.

  <http://indiamond6.ulib.iupui.edu/Santayana/>

  PGS Schilpp, Paul Arthur, editor. The Philosophy of George Santayana.

  Volume II of The Library of Living Philosophers. Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern University Press, 1940.

  

TRS Singer, Beth. The Rational Society: A Critical Study of Santayana’s Thought.

  Cleveland, OH: Press of Case Western Reserve University, 1970.

  SAEP Sprigge, Timothy L. S. Santayana. London and Boston: Routledge,

  1995. Second edition of Santayana: An Examination of his Philosophy, with a new introduction, select bibliography, and a foreword by Angus Kerr-Lawson.

  

LITE Woodward, Anthony. Living in the Eternal: A Study of George Santayana.

  Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 1988.

About This Book

  Given George Santayana’s exquisite style and prolific output, it was difficult to condense his important writings into a single volume. But this wealth of material ensures that everything included in The Essential Santayana is a significant piece of work by an extraordinary thinker.

  In consultation with the other editors of the Santayana Edition, I composed an initial list of essays and chapters to include in The Essential Santayana. We selected works based on their traditional influence and popularity, their representative- ness with respect to Santayana’s philosophical vision, or their importance accord- ing to Santayana’s comments in his correspondence. I grouped the selected titles under thematic heads corresponding to his philosophical and literary interests to produce a provisional table of contents, which I then shared with an international group of Santayana scholars. Based on the comments and recommendations of these scholars, I refined the table of contents and began working with the other editors of the Santayana Edition to compile texts for the volume.

  The texts of the selections in The Essential Santayana were taken, when pos- sible, from The Works of George Santayana (The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., and London), an unmodernized, critical edition of the philosopher’s published and unpublished writings. An “unmodernized” edition retains outdated and idiosyn- cratic punctuation, spelling, capitalization, and word division in order to reflect the full intent of the author as well as the initial texture of the work. A “critical” edition allows the exercise of editorial judgment in making corrections, changes, and choices among authoritative readings. The goal of the editors of the criticial edition is to produce texts that accurately represent Santayana’s final intentions regarding his works, and to record all evidence (in textual apparatus that lists all variants and emendations) on which editorial decisions have been based.

  In case a selected text had not yet been published in the critical edition, it was typically drawn from a first edition. The source text was then scanned and the transcription was proofread against the original. Details of the source of each text are provided in an accompanying head note and the bibliography at the front of this book.

  The editorial approach in this volume takes Santayana’s philosophical writing to be the heart of his work, and the heart of this book consists of three sections addressed to traditionally philosophical themes. The contents of the first and last sections treat personal origins and cultural prospects respectively, but they are not detached from Santayana’s philosophy. He claimed that he stood “in philoso- phy exactly where [he stood] in daily life;” to do otherwise, he thought, would be dishonest ( ES, 51). The five sections of The Essential Santayana—I. Autobiography;

  II. Skepticism and Ontology; III. Rational Life in Art, Religion, and Spirituality;

  IV. Ethics and Politics; V. Literature, Culture, and Criticism—reflect the range of Santayana’s thought.

  Martin A. Coleman

Introduction: The Essential Santayana There is little hope of evoking the essence of Santayana

  Certainly there is such an essence, at least according to Santayana. As cer- tainly as Santayana existed, there is a particular character that distinguishes him as the individual he was and not Charles Peirce or John Dewey. And as certainly as he had a philosophy made up of thoughts which were “events in the world” ( RB1, 131), there is an essence that distinguishes his philosophy from all others. Santayana maintained that any thing, in virtue of existing, embodies a definite character, and that is its eternal, unchanging essence ( PGS, 525).

  And essences are, on Santayana’s view, just what humans intuit if they intuit anything: “they are precisely that which is clearest and most indubitably present in the brightest light. They are, in any ‘idea,’ all that can be observed, retained, recalled, or communicated” ( PGS, 500). In fact, he thought that only essences are present to us; it is material existences that cannot be directly intuited. Matter is on a different plane of being than essences: both are real, but only matter exists and it is not immediately accessible to the human mind. We intuit essences, and these essences we take as representative of what their existing objects are like.

  This suggests why there is little hope of grasping the essence of Santayana: one may intuit an essence, say of a living person, but how can one be sure that it is identical to the essence embodied in the existing individual? Or one may intuit the essence of Santayana’s philosophy, but how can one be sure that it is identical to the essence embodied in his actual cogitations? Since one has no direct access to matter, one cannot compare the material existence to the intuited essence.

  But this is no difficulty. Santayana wrote: “Our worst difficulties arise from the assumption that knowledge of existences ought to be literal” ( ES, 83). We make trouble for ourselves when we assume that the essence we intuit (which is a term of knowledge) should be somehow identical with the existing thing (which is the

  

object of knowledge). Santayana held that such an assumption is incompatible

  with a naturalistic understanding of the human intellect: It entails an unrealis- tic standard of certainty for knowledge, which breeds superstition and belief in immaterial powers. Because we never have certainty in fact, we are tempted to posit some undetectable realm or medium of true knowledge that somehow influences the sensible world of matter; or we claim that an immaterial mind mysteriously becomes a factor in the material world registering and directing objects of knowledge. Once this assumption is rejected, the inability to evoke the essence of Santayana is no longer a difficulty. Literal knowledge of existences is seen to be neither necessary nor possible.

  Literal knowledge is not necessary because symbolic knowledge meets human needs quite well ( ES, 83–84). An intuited essence may function as a symbol for an existing object; we can take an essence as standing for the nature or the sum of the properties of an existing thing. This is perfectly adequate for us to real- ize our natural goods—from avoiding dangers and securing safety to cultivating human consciousness. Taking intuited essences as symbols is a function of the imagination, and the test of fitness for symbols is action in a material environ- ment existing independently of human aims and desires. Santayana emphasized the importance of imagination without ever losing faith in an independent reality of material existences, entailed in every action and intention. Together, imagina- tion and action contribute to human knowledge.

  Literal knowledge, in the sense of an exact copy of material existences, is not possible because intuited essences and embodied essences result from different natural processes. According to Santayana, it may be possible for an intuited essence to be identical to an essence embodied in an existing object but he thought it highly unlikely. To expect human ideas to mirror nature is egotistical because it privileges the human intellect over the rest of nature. Human ideas express the activity of the human organism; they do not reproduce intrinsic essences of existing objects. Santayana pointed out that nature “has embodied, from indefi- nite past time, whatever essences she has embodied without asking our leave or conforming beforehand (as philosophers seem to expect) to the economy and logic of our thoughts” ( RB1, 136).

  This is not to claim that human ideas are irrelevant to nature. Nature produces them in human consciousness at definite points in the course of natural events; they are manifestations of nature in consciousness. Hence, they are relevant sym- bols of material existences. However, the character of the relevance varies with the conscious human organism and the situation, and intuited essences as sym- bols often reveal more about the organism intuiting them than about the objects for which they might stand.

  A reader’s intuited essence of Santayana, then, is a symbol for the man or his philosophy; and though it may reveal something about Santayana, it probably reveals more about the maker of the symbol. Santayana had a favorite image he used to express this inevitable variance between the essence intuited by a reader or observer and the object of inspection: “The idea Paul has of Peter, Spinoza observes, expresses the nature of Peter less than it betrays that of Paul” ( WD, ₁

  77). If an idea of Santayana expresses the nature of the one with that idea, then

  

The Essential Santayana, as an expression of the editor’s idea of Santayana, shows

  that the editor has a background in philosophy and reads Santayana primar- ily as a philosopher, though Santayana was an accomplished writer in several genres. And certainly the selections and their classifications within the five sec- tions of this volume demonstrate editorial tendencies that are accidental rather than essential to the philosophy of Santayana. But the volume is not worthless for not evoking the essence of Santayana.

  While The Essential Santayana will evoke a different idea in the mind of the reader than, say, Santayana’s 1923 work Scepticism and Animal Faith or an earlier edited collection of Santayana’s writings, none of these essences can be said to be essential to Santayana’s philosophy because “expressiveness is a most accidental matter. What a line suggests at one reading, it may never suggest again even to ₁ the same person” ( LR4, 91). The symbolic essences evoked by expressions are

  See also LGS, 6:58, 6:187; SAF, 247; RB1, 141. The text in Spinoza is found in Ethics, Part II, Prop. not permanently related to the essences of an author’s intentions. A reader’s intu- ited essence of Santayana’s philosophy, whether intuited after reading every last word he wrote or after reading a one-volume selection of texts, always will vary from the essence embodied by Santayana’s philosophy.

  Santayana wrote, “I am sorry for my critics if they think they must read and classify the numerous books I have written, if they are to gain a fair view of my philosophy. They will feel obliged to distinguish periods, and tendencies and ₂ inconsistent positions. But that is all insignificant, extraneous, accidental.” He considered the vital part of his thought to be “the living thread, still squirming and ignited,” and not found in “the cold old academic printed stuff” or some complete set of expressions.

  This comment suggests what The Essential Santayana is not: Santayana’s living inspiration captured on the page, the absolute truth of Santayana’s philosophy, the last word on Santayana’s most important writings. The first, human discourse cannot express; the second, like any “essences embodied . . . in the human body and total human career,” is “not such as human imagination can easily conceive” ( RB1, 131); and the third will come with Santayana’s last reader but will be no more or less authoritative than the present volume, at least under the aspect of eternity.

  But none of this is to suggest that thorough reading, edited volumes, and intel- lectual activity are meaningless and vain. Such a conclusion would indicate a lingering reverence for literal knowledge: to believe that the rejection of literal knowledge entails the rejection of all knowledge betrays the assumption that knowledge can be only literal. Symbolic knowledge as Santayana understood it does not reduce all to vanity. It serves moral enlightenment, and this suggests an interpretation of Santayana’s comments that points to what The Essential Santayana may be if it is a fruitful symbol of Santayana’s philosophy: an invitation to self- understanding. In this, The Essential Santayana would come closest to reviving the living thread of Santayana’s philosophy.

  The inevitable gap between the essence evoked in a reader by the present volume and the embodied essence of Santayana’s actual thoughts is no obstacle to human understanding if the aim of that understanding is moral. Symbolic knowledge serves the moral aim by inviting clearer understanding of the symbol- izing organism; it can reveal the framer of ideas to himself. Santayana thought that “[i]n nature, as in a book, we can discover only such thoughts as we are capa- ble of framing” ( RB1, 593). The essences one assigns to existences reveal one’s capacities; and these in turn indicate one’s goods, that is, the tendencies of one’s perfection or what one is good for. This self-knowledge can be pursued through learning and reflection, and aided by the works of others, including books.

  This does not entail that the truth about a thinker or his works is up for grabs depending on the interpreter’s constitution, or that a reader’s self-knowledge is proof of a sound interpretation of Santayana. While Santayana acknowledged the thoughts of a critic or commentator seldom if ever match those of the author ₂ of the text being critiqued, he also believed that one might come closer to the author’s thoughts according to the degree of “likeness between the capacities of the writer and the reader” ( RB1, 593). One ought not let this revive hopes for literal knowledge. His point was that interpretations can be better or worse as determined by actual capacities, that is, by abilities to function and perform certain activities. Action in an independently existing universe, and not some standard of literal knowledge, is the check on imagination.

  If The Essential Santayana expresses a just and suitable symbol, then it ought to appeal to readers who value the awareness of essence and a refined human consciousness, as Santayana did. In other words, this volume of writings, if well selected, should appeal to those inclined to intellectual activities similar to Santayana’s. This book will serve its intended aim if, rather than eliciting any par- ticular essence, it encourages reflection and a deeper appreciation of the intuition of essences as the highest function of human life.

  But even if the volume is wisely selected and well edited, there remain ques- tions about the contemporary value of any book about George Santayana.

  Why Santayana? Why Now?

  To the questions “Why Santayana? Why now?” I answer that Santayana’s work offers a philosophical vision of human values without superstition. This vision reveres truth with courage and sincerity. These values diverge from—without condemning—the love of celebrity, possessions, and power prominent in popu- lar alternative visions of human life. Santayana’s prized values arise from the potentials and capacities of human reason and spirituality, and his understanding of human spirituality is always rooted in nature, in the larger universe. Hence, Santayana’s vision is broad but not shallow and human but not anthropocentric. Accordingly, he conceived of science without arrogance; religion without fanati- cism; pluralism without coercion; and disillusion without nihilism.

  I answer further that Santayana the best-selling novelist, cultural critic, poet, playwright, and author of unconventional philosophical works was among the most intellectual of public intellectuals. He rejected academic professionalism but never aspired to punditry. He wrote for those who would read him, neither excluding readers through intentional obscurity nor pandering to popular sensi- bilities. In 1936 Time magazine acknowledged his prominence with his portrait on its cover. After World War II American soldiers and civilians in Rome sought out the philosopher for autographs, photographs, and conversation, which he provided with grace and good humor. He lived a relaxed and simple (almost ascetic) life of “Epicurean contentment,” as he called it ( LGS, 5:297), devoted to contemplation, writing, and quietly generous friendship. He was a retiring though visible exemplar of the human life he articulated in his works.

  The contemporary cultural relevance of Santayana’s outlook becomes clearer if one chooses reason and intelligence in response to popular notions of post- modernism, to social fragmentation, and to globalization. Santayana’s broadly humanistic philosophy not only respects but draws heavily on established cul- tural traditions while denying the universal hegemony of any one tradition. His outlook is unmistakably grounded in European culture, the English language, the

  Greek philosophical tradition, and the Roman Catholic religious tradition. But his thought also displays a deep appreciation for Asian philosophical and religious traditions both as contrast and complement to his European roots. Furthermore, Santayana was undenably influenced by his American experience—an experience of conflicted allegiances that often provoked his best literary and philosophical writing. Out of this cultural material Santayana created a philosophy that is both open to the variety of human experience and faithful to the concrete individual.

  In his autobiography, he wrote,

  

The full grown human soul should respect all traditions and understand all passions; at the

same time it should possess and embody a particular culture, without any unmanly relaxation

or mystical neutrality. Justice is one thing, indecision is another, and weak. If you allow all

men to live according to their genuine natures, you must assert your own genuine nature and

live up to it ( PP, 464).