George Santayana

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Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás
Born16 December 1863
Died26 September 1952
Era20th century philosophy
RegionWestern Philosophy
SchoolPragmatism, Naturalism
Notable ideas
Lucretian materialism, skepticism, natural aristocracy, The Realms of Being

Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás (December 16, 1863–September 26, 1952), also known as George Santayana, was a Spanish American academic, philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist.[1]

Santayana is known for his sayings,

  • "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it",[2]
  • "[O]nly the dead have seen the end of war."[3]

Early life[change | change source]

Santayana was born on December 16, 1863 in Madrid. He spent his early childhood in Ávila.

He attended Harvard University, where he studied with William James and Josiah Royce.

He earned a Ph.D. at Harvard in 1889. He also studied in Berlin and Cambridge.[1]

Career[change | change source]

Santayana taught philosophy at Harvard.[1] Some of his students were T. S. Eliot, Robert Frost, Gertrude Stein, Walter Lippmann, and W. E. B. Du Bois.

Santayana influenced many others, including Bertrand Russell.

Selected works[change | change source]

In a summary based on writings by and about Santayana, OCLC/WorldCat lists roughly 1,040+ works in 2,980+ publications in 22 languages and 90,830+ library holdings.[4]

This list is not finished; you can help Wikipedia by adding to it.
  • 1905–1906. The Life of Reason: Or, The Phases of Human Progress, 5 vols. Available free online from Project Gutenberg. 1998. 1 vol. abridgement by the author and Daniel Cory. Prometheus Books.
  • 1910. Three Philosophical Poets: Lucretius, Dante, and Goethe.
  • 1913. Winds of Doctrine: Studies in Contemporary Opinion.
  • 1915. Egotism in German Philosophy.
  • 1920. Character and Opinion in the United States: With Reminiscences of William James and Josiah Royce and Academic Life in America.
  • 1920. Little Essays, Drawn From the Writings of George Santayana by Logan Pearsall Smith, With the Collaboration of the Author.
  • 1922. Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies.
  • 1923. Scepticism and Animal Faith: Introduction to a System of Philosophy.
  • 1927. Platonism and the Spiritual Life.
  • 1927–40. The Realms of Being, 4 vols. 1942. 1 vol.
  • 1931. The Genteel Tradition at Bay.
  • 1933. Some Turns of Thought in Modern Philosophy: Five Essays.
  • 1936. Obiter Scripta: Lectures, Essays and Reviews. Justus Buchler and Benjamin Schwartz, eds.
  • 1946. The Idea of Christ in the Gospels; or, God in Man: A Critical Essay.
  • 1948. Dialogues in Limbo, With Three New Dialogues.
  • 1951. Dominations and Powers: Reflections on Liberty, Society, and Government.
  • 1955. The Letters of George Santayana. Daniel Cory, ed. Charles Scribner's Sons. New York. (296 letters)
  • 1956. Essays in Literary Criticism of George Santayana. Irving Singer, ed.
  • 1957. The Idler and His Works, and Other Essays. Daniel Cory, ed.
  • 1967. The Genteel Tradition: Nine Essays by George Santayana. Douglas L. Wilson, ed.
  • 1967. George Santayana's America: Essays on Literature and Culture. James Ballowe, ed.
  • 1967. Animal Faith and Spiritual Life: Previously Unpublished and Uncollected Writings by George Santayana With Critical Essays on His Thought. John Lachs, ed.
  • 1968. Santayana on America: Essays, Notes, and Letters on American Life, Literature, and Philosophy. Richard Colton Lyon, ed.
  • 1968. Selected Critical Writings of George Santayana, 2 vols. Norman Henfrey, ed.
  • 1969. Physical Order and Moral Liberty: Previously Unpublished Essays of George Santayana. John and Shirley Lachs, eds.
  • 1979. The Complete Poems of George Santayana: A Critical Edition. Edited, with an introduction, by W. G. Holzberger. Bucknell University Press.
  • 1995. The Birth of Reason and Other Essays. Daniel Cory, ed., with an Introduction by Herman J. Saatkamp, Jr. Columbia Univ. Press.
  • 2009. The Essential Santayana. Selected Writings Edited by the Santayana Edition, Compiled and with an introduction by Martin A. Coleman. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Related pages[change | change source]

References[change | change source]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Addison, Henry Robert. (1907). Who's who, Vol. 59, p. 1555.
  2. George Santayana (1905) Reason in Common Sense, volume 1 of The Life of Reason
  3. George Santayana (1922) Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies, number 25
  4. WorldCat Identities: Santayana, George 1863-1952; retrieved 2012-6-22.

Other websites[change | change source]

Media related to George Santayana at Wikimedia Commons