The Essential Santayana Selected Writings [Paperback]

Although he was born in Spain, George Santayana (18631952) became a uniquely American philosopher, critic, poet, and best-selling novelist. Along with his Harvard colleagues William James and Josiah Royce, he is best known as one of the founders of American pragmatism and recognized for his insights into the theory of knowledge, metaphysics, and moral philosophy. The Essential Santayana presents a selection of Santayana's most important and influential literary and philosophical work. Martin A. Coleman's critical introduction sets Santayana into the American philosophical tradition and provides context for contemporary readers, many of whom may be approaching Santayana's writings for the first time. This landmark collection reveals the intellectual and literary diversity of one of American philosophy's most lively minds.

Acknowledgments
Chronology of the Life and Work of George Santayana
List of Bibliographical Abbreviations
Introduction: The Essential Santayana

Part 1. Autobiography
A General Confession
My Place, Time, and Ancestry
Epilogue on My Host, the World

Part 2. Skepticism and Ontology
Philosophical Heresy
Preface [Scepticism and Animal Faith]
There Is No First Principle of Criticism
Dogma and Doubt
Wayward Scepticism
Ultimate Scepticism
Nothing Given Exists
The Discovery of Essence
The Watershed of Criticism
Knowledge Is Faith Mediated by Symbols
Belief in Substance
Literary Psychology
The Implied Being of Truth
Comparison with Other Criticisms of Knowledge
Normal Madness
Some Meanings of the Word Is
Preface to Realms of Being
Various Approaches to Essence
The Being Proper to Essences
The Scope of Natural Philosophy
Indispensable Properties of Substance
Teleology
The Psyche
There Are No Necessary Truths
Facts Arbitrary, Logic Ideal
Interplay between Truth and Logic
Dramatic Truth
Moral Truth
Love and Hatred of Truth
Denials oflãÂ