Word: santayana
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Things Have Their Day." In summing up his time, Santayana judged it no more charitably than he had judged persons and places: "The contemporary world has turned its back on the attempt and even on the desire to live reasonably . . . The peculiar malady of my times . . . was . . . vacant freedom and indeterminate progress: Vorwärts! Avanti! Onward! Full speed ahead! without asking whether directly before you was not a bottomless...
That modern civilization was headed straight for the pit, Santayana had few doubts. From his contemplative seat on the sidelines of life, he issued a mixture of cool wisdom and cold comfort on the subject: "Things have their day, and their beauties in that day . . . Ruins give ground for hope; for although nothing can last forever, now and then good seasons may return...
Lewis, the only philosopher present who knew Santayana personally, explained his self-imposed exile. "Teaching was not sufficient for his spectator mind. Which found satisfaction in contemplation," said Lewis...
Olafson's paper defined Santayana's position among the skeptics. "Although he wrote too well to be reliable, he represented and defended pure skepticism as a way of life increasingly precious because it is increasingly rare," he said...
Commenting on Santayana's aesthetic and moral values, Alken pointed out that the philosopher had a lack of fundamental warmth, but possessed a quality of complete detachment...