A George Santayana Home Page
was
introduced in 1996 to honor the work of philosopher and critic, George Santayana.
The editor of this site wished in particular to demonstrate the clarity and consistency
of definition and doctrine found in Santayana's philosophical writings. As the quotations
gathered here tend to show, this level of consistency is remarkable, especially in light
of the facts that Santayana published technical philosophical essays and books over a period
of almost sixty years, and that his point of vantage varied over time between a frank humanism,
a foundational naturalism, and an all-enveloping ontological vision. In the year of his death,
Santayana remarked that " . . . I have . . . been surprised to find 'The Life of Reason' so much
like my later views . "
Letters
8:421 (To John Hall Wheelock,
February 23, 1952).
A George Santayana Home Page
offers quotations falling under five
broad categories: (1) definitions; (2) nature of philosophy; (3) mind / body; (4) moral philosophy;
and (5) criticism. These categories are explored in twenty-four web pages. Most of these pages
organize quotations by date of first publication and thus attempt to show consistency of theme
between earlier and later writings. Seven pages, though, are organized by subject:
Terminology,
Isms,
Reason and Spirit,
False Steps in Philosophy,
British Philosophy,
Law & Government, and
Americanism. A twenty-fifth page presents miscellaneous quotations by subject.
Each quotation is followed by a citation which
consists of an abbreviation, page number, and chapter. The abbreviation is explained
in the bibliography of editions used, which is accessible from the main page of the web site
or by selecting any citation. While the indicated page number ties to the edition used, the
parenthetically indicated chapter will assist the reader to locate quotations where I have erred
in providing page numbers or where an unusual edition (e.g., Triton) is in the reader's possession.
Recent Developments
During 2010 the site moved to the domain, www.george-santayana.org, and the database which
generates the pages was extensively re-designed and re-programmed. The new site
provides the editor with more control over formatting of content, permits the
re-opening of the guestbook for
Comments, and includes "find"
and "search" features on the page entitled,
Custom Quotations.
Five pages are added to the site:
-
Essence and Existenceis added to the category "Philosophy";
-
Metaphysicsis added to the category "Mind / Body";
-
Spirit Incarnateis added to the category "Mind / Body";
-
Superficial "will"is added to the category "Moral philosophy"; and
-
Americanismis added to the category "Criticism . "
Additionally, hundreds of newly-added quotations are scattered among the pre-existing pages.
More detailed bibliographic records for each chapter of published works allows for
better sorting by chronology. For example, many chapters of
Soliloquies in England
had been published first as articles and are sorted accordingly where cited on this web site. The same
phenomenon occurs with frequency for citations to chapters found in certain posthumous compilations.
This drive to improve bibliographic integrity has induced two more changes.
First, where a critical edition exists, it is now cited. Second, the editor now
cites the first American edition where that volume is in his possession or available
to him electronically. Therefore, the user will notice that:
- the one-volume, compact edition of
Realms of Being
is not cited except for its
Introduction;
- the one-volume edition of
The Life of Reason
is not cited except for its
Preface;
- the second edition of
Reason in Common Sense
is not cited except for its
Preface to the Second Edition;
- the second edition of
Dialogues in Limbo
is not cited except for one of its new dialogues,
The Vortex of Dialectic;
- the new edition of
Winds of Doctrine
is not cited except for its new
Preface; and
- the new edition of
Egotism in German Philosophy
is not cited except for its
Postscript: The Nature of Egotism and of the Moral Conflicts That Disturb the World.
Prior Developments
- In 2009, the site was moved to www.awardspace.com.. Pages on "human nature" and "mind as index" were posted for the first time. More than 70 quotations were added to the database since 17 April 2007. The editor for the first time distinguished at the bottom of each page of quotations the number originally published before 1925 from the number of quotations originally published after 1924. As is done each year, the list of external links was updated in 2009.
- In 2008, the site was moved from A O L to Road Runner. By Septermber 2008, A O L no longer supported any personal homepages. Due to changes in support of personal homepages at Road Runner in late 2008, the site was without a home for a few weeks.
- For 2007, the editor posted pages of "New Quotations," and "All Citations," and revised the page of "External Links . " He also added quotations, expanded some introductions, removed a number of typographical errors, added entries to the bibliography, attempted to normalize citation practices across the site, and cleaned up style sheets. Letters were sorted by the date each was written, rather than the date published in book form.
- At the ten-year anniversary of the posting of this site to the World Wide Web, the main page was redesigned, this detailed description of the site and its history was added, some additional quotations were provided, and various "Editor's Introduction" pages were expanded. Additonally, the guest book was closed due to abuse by spammers.