The Reception of Santayana's Life of Reason among American Philosophers

The Reception of Santayana's Life of Reason among American Philosophers GARY R. STOLZ THE MULTI-VOLUMED Life of Reason or the Phases o] Human Progress constitutes George Santayana's most influential philosophical work. Initially published in London and New York during 1905-1906, this work was the product of a sustained intellectual effort.1 Developing his perception that reason was intimately related to nature, Santayana had traced the fortunes of reason in five full volumes dealing with such diverse topics as common sense, society, religion, art, and science. He suggested that men could not live a reasonable existence until they admitted the natural origins of their opinions, recognized the limitations imposed by their environment, and sought to understand themselves before formulating ideal goals.2 "I have read practically no reviews of my book," wrote Santayana (in 1905), "so that I don't know if any one has felt in it something which, I am sure, is there: I mean the tears.''a Santayana's tears were not for the departed gods of Greece or for "the stained-glass of cathedrals broken to let in the sunlight and the air." They were shed precisely for the pitifuUy small amount of sunlight and fresh air which men and women of the modem world could feel and breathe. Much of Santayana's self-confessed "irritation " was the result of "seeing the only things that are beautiful treated as if they were of no account.''4 Had he read the reviews of The Lile ot Reason, Santayana would have found a mixed but, generally, favorable reaction.~ John Dewey, writing in Science, praised Santayana's first two volumes as affording "the potency, of the most significant contd1 George Santayana, The Life of Reason or the Phases ol Human Progress, 5 vols. (New York, 1905-1906; reprinted 1906).This edition was used throughout the present essay. 2 Extensive discussions of the various themes in Santayana's Life ol Reason may be found in Irwin Edman, "Introductory Essay," in The Philosophy of Santayana: Selections lrom the Works of George Santayana, ed. Edman (New York, 1936), pp. xi-lvi; George W. Howgate, George Santayana (Philadelphia, 1938), pp. 87-141; and Eliseo Vivas, "From The Life of Reason to The Last Puritan," in The Philosophy ol George Santayana, ed. Paul Arthur Schilpp (Evanston, Ill., 1940), pp. 313-350. Other pertinent sources include Joseph L. Blau, Men and Movements in American Philosophy (New York, 1952), pp. 323-334; Morris R. Cohen, American Thought: .4 Critical Sketch, ed. Felix S. Cohen (Glencor Ill., 1954), pp. 311-315; Paul K. Conkin, Puritans and Pragmatists: Eight Eminent American Thinkers (New York, 1968), pp. 405-474; and Morton White, Science and Sentiment in America: Philosophical Thought from Jonathan Edwards to John Dewey (New York, 1972),pp. 240-265. 3 Santayana to William ]ames, 6 Dec. 1905, The Letters of George Santayana, ed. Daniel Cory (New York, 1955),pp. 82-83. 4 Ibid., p. 83. 5 Howgate, George Santayana, pp. 130-132, contains a brief ~eatment of some of the re, views of Santayana's work. [3231 324 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY bution, made in this generation, to philosophic revision." Dewey correctly identified Santayana's point of view as that of "naturalistic idealism"; by this he was referring to Santayana's adroit linking of the ideal organizing principle of reason with its underlying natural conditions. 6 Dewey saw clearly the ligaments of Santayana's thought: Nature shows itself in a life of sentiency and of impulse. But some sentient moments mean more, satisfy more, and are at a deeper level, than others. The significance of such moments, persistently entertained, constitutes reason. For so entertained, they afford standards of estimation, of criticism, of construction: they become the starting-points of sustained effort to bring all experiences into harmony with themselves.7 This was at once an old view (formerly held by the Greeks) and, for the world of the early twentieth century (still divided among materialists and idealists), an important one. "With whatever of criticism and qualification," wrote Dewey, "those who think, as does the present writer, that the really vital problem of present philosophy is the union of naturalism and idealism, must gratefully acknowledge the...