Some Thoughts on Santayana at Harvard

Santayana is remarkable for having lived the kind of life his philosophy describes. However, a careful re-assessment of how his “metanoia” of 1893 seems to have unfolded in his later years offers an opportunity to reassess Santayana’s life project. Santayana’s own self-characterization, even if accurate, must have been accurate only at intervals and more so towards his much later years. This has two broad consequences. It prompts us to rethink our views about (a) how he actually lived his philosophy, and (b) how morally feasible his way of life might be for us today, in light of his own detachment and the (arguably) insufficient level of empathy it reflects.