On Gnats and Barnacles, or Some Similarities Between Santayana’s Idea of Change and Ancient Greek Thought

The question of movement and permanence is the key element representing the transition from scepticism to knowledge—faith—in Santayana’s Scepticism and Animal Faith. This chapter studies the influence of Parmenides’ and Heraclitus’ doctrines over Santayana’s Realms of Matter and Essence, and reflects on some of the epistemological implications of that influence. Using as a metaphor Zeno’s aporias, which deal with the continuum-discrete pair, the theory of divisible leaps is introduced as explanatory of Santayana’s theory of knowledge. As a conclusion, Santayana’s ideas of matter, essence, and knowledge are shown to be deeply connected to some key ancient Greek philosophical and mathematical tenets.