Santayana’s Grammar of the Spirit

For understanding this chapter, it is important to keep in mind the numerous concepts I have considered in the previous chapters concerning Santayana’s critical view of James. For taken together, they represent a truly unique approach to developing a philosophy in the modern world. One naturally thinks of James as a great genius in philosophy, which he unquestionably was! Santayana, however, was also a genius, but one who thought it imperative to develop a critical philosophy in a historical manner. One major concern of his philosophy is how to connect with the past in a manner that remains personally meaningful; or, put differently, how to reinvigorate classical ideals within a post-Romantic, post-positivistic zeitgeist. It is for this reason that his most innovative theoretical perspective is best understood in terms of the linguistics analogy described in previous chapters, one that is most explicitly developed here.