| 1906 | The Life of Reason |
| p.3 | 8000 | He who is ignorant of the history of philosophy is doomed to repeat it | |
| Full Idea: Santayana remarked that he who is ignorant of the history of philosophy is doomed to repeat it. | |||
| From: report of George Santayana (The Life of Reason [1906]) by Alasdair MacIntyre - A Short History of Ethics Ch.1 | |||
| A reaction: Santayana's remark seems to have been about history in general, so this is a Macintyre thought. It obviously has a lot of truth, and most great philosophers seem hugely knowledgeable. However, ignorance brings a kind of freedom. |
| 1927 | Platonism and the Spiritual Life |
| p.3 | p.130 | 23060 | The good is not relative, but is rooted in facts about human needs |
| Full Idea: The good is by no means relative to opinion, but is rooted in the unconscious and fatal nature of living beings, a nature which predetermines for them the difference between foods and poisons, happiness and misery. | |||
| From: George Santayana (Platonism and the Spiritual Life [1927], p.3), quoted by John Gray - Seven Types of Atheism 6 | |||
| A reaction: That is, he concedes that the good is relative to human beings, but that the relevant facts about human beings are not relative. I think he has the correct picture. The key point is that the good is 'rooted' in something, and doesn't just float free. |
| 1930 | The Realm of Matter |
| p.107 | p.53 | 18521 | The criterion of existence is the possibility of action |
| Full Idea: The possibility of action ...is the criterion of existence, and the test of substantiality. | |||
| From: George Santayana (The Realm of Matter [1930], p.107), quoted by John Heil - The Universe as We Find It | |||
| A reaction: I rather like this. I think I would say the power is the criterion of existence. |