George Santayana
150 years ago , 16th of December 1863 – Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás , known as George Santayana was born in Madrid, a philosopher, an essayist , a literary critic, poet and a novelist , as a son of a Spanish diplomat he stayed in the United States (Boston ) from the age of six, studied and then taught at Harvard University until 1912 anglicisating his name , after several years in Paris and Oxford he finally settled in Rome , where he died in 1952 , in philosophy he combined two ontological realities: Democritus materialism with Platonic idealism reconciling them so that the real world together with the knowledge ( which is not a substance , but a state of matter having the capacity to act ) he considered "the kingdom of matter" , nevertheless , beyond which in potentia exists a world of eternals’ , of ideal essences , that a person can renew within a religion, metaphysics , poetry and politics, forming the "kingdom of the spirit" , although an unbeliever , he admired the Catholic Church ( while feeling disgust for Puritanism ), and described himself as a "Catholic aesthetic" (the last ten years of his life spent in a Roman monastery ) in politics a definite conservative (counted amongst the " pessimistic conservatives " ) and an elitist who rejected the democratic " dogma " about the identity of all people and the liberal understanding of freedom as the right to an unrestrained individualist action favouring the Greek idea of freedom instead, determining the pattern of moral perfection of a man, which does not preclude submission to authority , "the leaders by birth ", i.e. able to control their irrational impulses, his ideal was a monarchy built on the model of the Church and restraint by the aristocratic representation, but he also allowed for " Timocracy , "or government " of excellent people ."
prof. Jacek Bartyzel
translated by Arek Jakubczyk
Kategoria: Reactionary Diary
