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Publisher's Note: The Life of Reason will not interest those attracted to the turgid obfuscatory mutterings of Heidegger, postmodernist critics, and other related thinkers. It will appeal though to those interested in analytic philosophy, logic, and scientific skepticism.
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93 of 95 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In a century in which philosophy has been taken over by pedants eager to "analyze" every technical problem ever devised by the perverted ingenuity of the mind of man--technical problems, moreover, which, as Santayana himself once put it, are "solved best by not raising them"--it is comforting to know that at least one major philosopher never forgot what philosophy is really all about: namely, wisdom and love of knowledge. Whereas other philosophers seek to impress by being original or controversial or obscure, Santayana merely attempts to describe things as they are. Santayana is above all a realist, not merely in the philosophical sense of believing that external objects exist outside of man's consciousness, but also in the more general sense of accepting the world as it really is and not as we might wish it could be. So many philosophers seem motivated primarily by a desire to rationalize away the disagreeable aspects of reality. Santayana's approach is different. While recognizing that reality has its disagreeable elements (Santayana was certainly no optimist), he seeks to distinguish, as he once put it, the part of this disagreeable or mixed reality "that could be loved and chosen from the reminder."
In "The Life of Reason," Santayana sought to explain how reason emerges in five separate areas of human existence: thought, society, religion, art and science. Originally, Santayana devoted one book to each subject. In this present edition, all five books have been abridged by the author and made into a single volume. The unabridged version is superior to this one. The abridged version is more difficult to follow, because in the process of condensing five books into one, gaps have been created in the exposition of Santayana's thought. Unfortunately, the original five volume edition is no longer in print.
The best two volumes of the unabridged version were "Reason in Common Sense" and "Reason in Religion." The first of these books shows how men came to discover the external reality of nature and the independent existence of other minds. There are chapters on how thought is practical, on the "malicious psychology" of philosophers like Kant, Hume and Berkeley, on how thought is practical, and on Santayana's contention that ideas are not abstractions. "Reason in Religion" is one of the most interesting books on religion ever published and ought to be read by every atheist and agonistic who regards religion as a mere tissue of delusion and irrationality. Santayana, while denying the literal truth of religion, contends that religion nonetheless represents a sort of poetic and moral truth expressed in symbols that can be grasped on a very human level. "Religion remains an imaginative achievement, a symbolic representation of moral reality which may have a most important function in vitalising the mind and in transmitting, by way of parables, the lessons of experience."
The over-riding theme of "The Life of Reason" is Santayana's conviction that only by recognizing the material world and the "conditions of existence," can the spirit become enlightened concerning the source of its troubles and the means of its happiness or deliverance. There is, I would contend, no philosophical work of the twentieth century that is more sane, that expresses better judgment on the main issues of philosophy, or that demonstrates a deeper wisdom about the nature of things than this classic work.
34 of 34 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Life of Reason is a marvelously executed, exceptionally elegant philosophical tour de force. Santayana refuses to be blinded by prejudicial notions and founds his philosophical hermeneutic on common-sense, logic, and probability. One reviewer here has noted that Santayana takes a myopic perspective on religion. Frankly, this is baffling. Santayana believes that religion is a kind of species of literature and that we should not look to it for scientific insights. In contrast, he believes that religion, in the abstract, has, as all belief systems do, a rational framework, so to speak. In addition to this, Santayana finds much about theology and religious ritual, more aesthetically speaking, intriguing. This is hardly a one-sided view. The Life of Reason will not interest those attracted to the turgid obfuscatory mutterings of Heidegger, postmodernist critics, and other related thinkers. It will appeal though to those interested in analytic philosophy, logic, and scientific skepticism. A wonderful book.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
George Santayana
"Progress ... depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute ... and when experience is not retained ... infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. In the first stage of life the mind is frivolous and easily distracted, it misses progress by failing in consecutiveness and persistence. This is the condition of children and barbarians..."
"Progress ... depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute ... and when experience is not retained ... infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. In the first stage of life the mind is frivolous and easily distracted, it misses progress by failing in consecutiveness and persistence. This is the condition of children and barbarians..."
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Good Navigation
This is what it says it is: a public domain text with navigation that allows the user to easily navigate the entire book, providing forward, backward and cross links to every... Read more
Published 14 months ago by James O. Smith
The Life of Reason --- and the Kindle version
The Kindle version of this book is not very well-done. It's taken straight from the Gutenberg project and can only be read with the large Kindle turned sideways into landscape... Read more
Published on April 26, 2010 by Geoff Puterbaugh
Bad sync
Good thing this was for free. All that was sent to my Kindle was the first page, a blank cover. The site will not allow me to reorder.
Published on December 25, 2009 by Eagle
Not for just anyone
This is not a book for the uneducated, the young, or those who have not spread their intellectual endeavors definitively over a wide range of subjects.
Published on October 10, 2009 by B. Thornton
Santayana
I discovered Santayana at the Little Given's Bookstore in Lynchburg VA. I have the 1936 edition of The Philosophy of Santayana, Selections from His Complete Works, edited by Irwin... Read more
Published on February 23, 2007 by Leisa
Politically incorrect but much more
I am curious if anybody that is politically correct has read enough of this classic to condemn Santayana for his comments on women and blacks. Read more
Published on January 26, 2007 by peter fairley
Empty rhetoric from a jockstrap pragmatist
Santayana is known broadly as the guy who said that those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it -- whatever that means. Read more
Published on August 10, 2006 by T. Porges
For the Choir
Santayana has a flowing style and is a master of rhetoric. Do not read this work if you are looking for a well argued thesis. Read more
Published on August 13, 1998 by Clark Massey
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