Abstract
George Santayana (1863–1952) believed that a philosophy of orthodox common sense exists beneath all major systems of philosophy and religion. This philosophy is a form of naturalism. It begins with the assumption that we are animals generated by and sustained for a time within a vast impersonal physical cosmos that is the sole source of power. Although rational argumentation cannot justify this assumption, our actions repeatedly confirm it, and we could not live without it. Another central feature of Santayana’s philosophy of naturalism is that we are conscious as well as active animals. The inner light of awareness, or what he calls “spirit,” arises by the activities of the physical body but is itself powerless. Our experience of the world is rendered in the morally charged signs of human cognition, and these may be aesthetically appreciated for their own sake in imagination, granting us the possibility of contemplative respite from the exigencies of life. Santayana’s philosophy is atheistic and holds out no religious hope of redemption. Still, it is celebratory of the life of consciousness and offers a path toward naturalistic spirituality.
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Notes
- 1.
Santayana habitually used the British spellings of “sceptic” and “scepticism,” for example, in the title of his book. To be consistent with Santayana’s preferences, the British spellings of “sceptic” and “scepticism” are used throughout the volume.
- 2.
In a letter to his publisher, Santayana explained that “what suggested the word to me is that my windows in Rome look down on the Fontana del Tritone and Via del Tritone. The Triton, by Bernini, is well known, and might be reproduced for a frontispiece or paper-cover. Then there is the association with Wordsworth’s sonnet: ‘a pagan suckled in a creed outworn’ and ‘hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn’” (LGS, 5:351).
- 3.
George Santayana. 1940. “Apologia Pro Mente Sua.” In The Philosophy of George Santayana, vol. II of The Library of Living Philosophers, ed. Paul Arthur Schilpp. Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern University, 495–605.
References
Santayana, George. 1918. Literal and Symbolic Knowledge. The Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Methods 15 (16): 421–444.
———. 1920. Three Proofs of Realism. In Essays in Critical Realism: A Co-Operative Study of the Problem of Knowledge, 163–186. London: Macmillan.
———. 1940. Apologia Pro Mente Sua. In The Philosophy of George Santayana, The Library of Living Philosophers, ed. Paul Arthur Schilpp, vol. II, 495–605. Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern University.
———. 2001–2008. The Letters of George Santayana, Books 1–8, The Works of George Santayana, eds. William G. Holzberger and Herman J. Saatkamp, Jr., vol. V. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. Cited as “LGS, n:m”—to book n, page m.
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Coleman, M.A., Tiller, G. (2024). Introduction. In: Coleman, M.A., Tiller, G. (eds) The Palgrave Companion to George Santayana’s Scepticism and Animal Faith. Palgrave Companions. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-46367-9_1
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