George Santayana

The Life of Reason, critical edition, Volume 7

Introduction and Reason in Common Sense, Volume VII, Book One
Herausgeber: Wokeck, Marianne S.; Coleman, Martin A.

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Santayana argues that instinct and imagination are crucial to the emergence of reason from chaos. 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. The other four books of the volume include Reason in Society, Reason in Religion, Reason in Art, and Reason in Science.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: MIT Press
• Seitenzahl: 404
• Erscheinungstermin: 5. August 2011
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 229mm x 152mm x 22mm
• Gewicht: 583g
• ISBN-13: 9780262538787
• ISBN-10: 0262538784
• Artikelnr.: 70265822

Autorenporträt

George Santayana, born Jorge Agust n Nicol s Ruiz de Santayana y Borr s on December 16, 1863, was a Spanish-American philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist. Raised in the United States from the age of eight, Santayana identified as American but always maintained his Spanish citizenship. He left his position as a professor at Harvard University at the age of 48 and spent the rest of his life in Europe. Santayana is best known for his philosophical aphorisms, such as "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" and "Only the dead have seen the end of war." He defined beauty as "Pleasure objectified," highlighting his interest in aesthetic experience. Although an atheist, Santayana retained a deep respect for the Catholic culture and values of his Spanish upbringing. His work covered a wide range of intellectual topics, blending philosophy with literary expression. Santayana passed away on September 26, 1952, in Rome, where he was buried in the Spanish Pantheon in the Campo di Verano.