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6 1911-1914: Eliot Absorbed in Philosophical Studies
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. Prologue: The Rise of Harvard’s Philosophy Department and the Santayana Controversy The Harvard philosophy department that T. S. Eliot found upon entering its graduate program in had been shaped some three decades or so earlier. Eliot’s distant cousin, Charles W. Eliot, had served as president of Harvard from to and was credited in Three Centuries of Harvard, – () by Samuel Eliot Morison (another distant cousin) with having maneuvered the appointment of “three out of four of Harvard’s matchless philosophical foursome.” The first of these was George Herbert Palmer, who took his B.A. at Harvard in , “translated from the Greek Department to a vacant instructorship in .” Next was William James, who, “after a haphazard Jamesian education (schools and private tutors in three or four countries, painting with La Farge under William Morris Hunt, chemistry and anatomy in the Lawrence Scientific School, medicine in the Harvard Medical School)” was appointed an instructor in physiology in ; he “established the first American psychological laboratory in , and became Assistant Professor of Philosophy four years later.” Third was Josiah Royce, of California, educated at “Göttingen, and Johns Hopkins,” who “substituted [6] – () Prologue: The Rise of Harvard’s Philosophy Department and the Santayana Controversy , ; () The Decline and Fall of Harvard Philosophy in Eliot’s Day and After, ; () Eliot and Oriental Philosophies and Religions, ; () Psychology as Philosophical, Religion as Psychological, Mysticism as Magical, ; () Eliot and the Elusive Absolute, ; () Epilogue: The Eliot Controversy, for James in –, and remained at Cambridge for the rest of his days.” And last was George Santayana, who took his degree from Harvard in , and “shortly after began the second stage of his captivity among the puritans .” Clearly the last of the “matchless foursome,” in Morison’s view, was Santayana—not only numerically but also in intellectual stature (Morison, TCH, –). Morison does not give credit to President Eliot for Santayana’s appointment for good reason: the President actually opposed it. The story is especially interesting in that it bears some similarities to the story much later of what happened when the philosophy department could not agree on the hiring of T. S. Eliot (related in this chapter’s epilogue). Santayana took his B.A. (summa cum laude) at Harvard in and was awarded a two-year fellowship for study in Germany. He returned to Harvard and completed his doctoral dissertation in philosophy in and was appointed an instructor in philosophy. His biographer John McCormick relates the story of what happened when Santayana was proposed for appointment to an assistant professorship in . President Eliot wrote to a member of the department, Hugo Münsterberg: “I agree with you that Dr. Santayana’s qualities give a useful variety to the Philosophical Department, and that he is an original writer of proved capacity. I suppose the fact to be that I have doubts and fears about a man so abnormal as Dr. Santayana.” After quoting this passage, McCormick comments: “Since Eliot was not alleging psychiatric disorder, his use of ‘abnormal’ probably meant ‘homosexual’” (McCormick, ). Material supporting McCormick’s assertion has been presented in Chapters and . The remainder of President Eliot’s letter to Münsterberg seems to con- firm this characterization: “The withdrawn, contemplative man who takes no part in the everyday work of the institution, or of the world, seems to me to be a person of very uncertain future value. He does not dig ditches, or lay bricks, or write school-books; his product is not of the ordinary useful, though humble, kind. What will it be? It may be something of the highest utility; but on the other hand, it may be something futile, or even harmful, because unnatural and untimely” (). The words are not only ambiguous but highly suggestive—“withdrawn,”“even harmful,”“unnatural and untimely.” In spite of his objection, President Eliot capitulated to the consensus in the department. Santayana had the support of Josiah Royce,William James, and Hugo Münsterberg, with only George Herbert Palmer expressing reservations about his appointment. When President Eliot answered Münsterberg’s rejoinder to the letter quoted above, he replied that his “doubts” had been answered: “I have read with much interest and admiration your third note T. S. Eliot: The Making of an American Poet [162] [44.192.107.255] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 02:58 GMT) about Mr. Santayana. I am very glad that you can say of him that he is a ‘strong and healthy man,’ and ‘a good, gay, fresh companion.’ That testimony strikes me as important...