George Santayana Biography

George Santayana occupies a unique position in the history of Western philosophy, American philosophy, and American belles lettres. Born in Madrid to a Spanish father and a Scottish mother, Santayana spans, in his life and intellectual career, the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the European and North American continents, intellectual disciplines, institutional and national loyalties. He was part of the "golden age of American philosophy" at Harvard University in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He eschewed technical philosophical terminology and logical symbolism and wrote in a poetic, clear prose intended to be understood by the intelligent layperson. Many people who are unfamiliar with philosophy and have never even read any of Santayana's works have heard his often-quoted remarks, both from Reason in Common Sense (1905): "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" and "Fanaticism consists in redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim."...
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