The Philosophy of George Santayana

Contents: Foreword. Preface to the Second Edition. Preface to the First Edition. Part One: Metaphysics and Epistemology. 1. An Historical Background. 2. Method. 3. Notion of Essence. 4. Essence and Existence. 5. Epistemology. Part Two: Aesthetics. 6. The Sense of Beauty. 7. Aesthetic Elements. 8. The Theory of Art. 9. Santayana and the Indian View of Beauty and Art. Part Three: Ethics and Religion. 10. Moral Philosophy and Theory of Value. 11. Theory of Religion. 12. A Critique of Santayana’s Religious Theory. Bibliography. Index.

This book discusses the quintessential aspects of George Santayana’s wide and comprehensive philosophy. Its critical and comparative discussions centre round the problems of Epistemology, Metaphysics, Aesthetics, Ethics and Religion. This makes it all the more interesting.

What is noteworthy about this book is that it shows how naturalism serves as a basis of the idealistic philosophy of George Santayana. Moreover, the illustrious part of this treatise is that essence, as discovered by Santayana by the doubting process, serves as the keynote of his whole philosophy.

The exposition of Santayana’s philosophy on the basis of the above two points is an outstanding feature of the present work. What is captivating about this book is that it shows how the natural gets reconciled with the ideal by making the former the ground of the latter.