Critical Edition of George Santayana's The Life of Reason and Three Philosophical Poets

FAIN: RQ-50231-06

Trustees of Indiana University, Indianapolis (Indianapolis, IN 46202-3288)
Marianne S. Wokeck (Project Director: November 2005 to November 2017)

Publication of George Santayana's The Life of Reason and Three Philosophical Poets. (36 months)

The critical edition of The Works of George Santayana makes the complete oeuvre of a preeminent twentieth-century thinker and writer accurately available to a diverse and international audience. The Edition is asking for support to complete preparations for publication of the five books of "The Life of Reason," as well as initial preparation for "Three Philosophical Poets." All books will be published at six-month intervals beginning in Summer 2007 and are likely to be published, like Book One of "The Letters of George Santayana," as e-books.

Associated Products

The Works of George Santayana, Volume VI, Santayana's Marginalia, A Critical Selection, Book Two: McCord-Zeller (Book)
Title: The Works of George Santayana, Volume VI, Santayana's Marginalia, A Critical Selection, Book Two: McCord-Zeller
Author: George Santayana
Editor: Herman J. Saatkamp, Jr.
Editor: John McCormick
Editor: Kristine Walters Frost
Editor: Marianne S. Wokeck
Editor: William G. Holzberger
Editor: Johanna E. Resler
Editor: David E. Spiech
Abstract: In his essay "Imagination," George Santayana writes, "There are books in which the footnotes, or the comments scrawled by some reader's hand in the margins, may be more interesting than the text." Santayana himself was an inveterate maker of notes in the margins of his books, writing (although neatly, never scrawling) comments that illuminate, contest, or interestingly expand the author's thought. These volumes offer a selection of Santayana's marginalia, transcribed from books in his personal library. These notes give the reader an unusual perspective on Santayana's life and work. He is by turns critical (often), approving (seldom), literary, slangy, frivolous, and even spiteful. The notes show his humor, his occasional outcry at a writer's folly, his concern for the niceties of English prose and the placing of Greek accent marks. These two volumes list alphabetically by author all the books extant that belonged to Santayana, reproducing a selection of his annotations intended to be of use to the reader or student of Santayana's thought, his art, and his life. Each entry includes a headnote with the author's name, the title of the work, brief publication information, and the library location of the book. Santayana, often living in solitude, spent a great deal of his time talking to, and talking back to, a wonderful miscellany of writers, from Spinoza to Kant to J. S. Mill to Bertrand Russell. These notes document those conversations.
Year: 2011
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/title/george-santayanas-marginalia-a-critical-selection-volume-6-book-two-mccord-zeller/oclc/754329755&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: WorldCat listing
Secondary URL: http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=12665
Secondary URL Description: Publisher's listing
Publisher: The MIT Press
Type: Scholarly Edition
ISBN: 9780262016

The Works of George Santayana, Volume VI, Santayana's Marginalia, A Critical Selection, Book One: Abell to Lucretius (Book)
Title: The Works of George Santayana, Volume VI, Santayana's Marginalia, A Critical Selection, Book One: Abell to Lucretius
Author: George Santayana
Editor: Herman J. Saatkamp, Jr.
Editor: John McCormick
Editor: Kristine Walters Frost
Editor: Marianne S. Wokeck
Editor: William G. Holzberger
Editor: Johanna E. Resler
Editor: David E. Spiech
Abstract: In his essay "Imagination," George Santayana writes, "There are books in which the footnotes, or the comments scrawled by some reader's hand in the margins, may be more interesting than the text." Santayana himself was an inveterate maker of notes in the margins of his books, writing (although neatly, never scrawling) comments that illuminate, contest, or interestingly expand the author's thought. These volumes offer a selection of Santayana's marginalia, transcribed from books in his personal library. These notes give the reader an unusual perspective on Santayana's life and work. He is by turns critical (often), approving (seldom), literary, slangy, frivolous, and even spiteful. The notes show his humor, his occasional outcry at a writer's folly, his concern for the niceties of English prose and the placing of Greek accent marks. These two volumes list alphabetically by author all the books extant that belonged to Santayana, reproducing a selection of his annotations intended to be of use to the reader or student of Santayana's thought, his art, and his life. Each entry includes a headnote with the author's name, the title of the work, brief publication information, and the library location of the book. Santayana, often living in solitude, spent a great deal of his time talking to, and talking back to, a wonderful miscellany of writers, from Spinoza to Kant to J. S. Mill to Bertrand Russell. These notes document those conversations.
Year: 2011
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/title/george-santayanas-marginalia-a-critical-selection-volume-6-book-one-abell-lucretius/oclc/754329754&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: WorldCat listing
Secondary URL: http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=12664
Secondary URL Description: Publisher's listing
Publisher: MIT Press
Type: Scholarly Edition
ISBN: 9786613258694

The Works of George Santayana, Volume VII, Book One,The Life of Reason (Book)
Title: The Works of George Santayana, Volume VII, Book One,The Life of Reason
Author: George Santayana
Editor: Herman J. Saatkamp, Jr.
Editor: Marianne S. Wokeck
Editor: Martin A. Coleman
Editor: James Gouinlock
Editor: Jonathan R. Eller
Editor: Kristine W. Frost
Editor: Johanna E. Resler
Editor: David E. Spiech
Editor: William G. Holzberger
Abstract: Santayana's Life of Reason, published in five books from 1905 to 1906, is on modern philosophical naturalism. Acknowledging the natural material bases of human life, Santayana traces the development of the human capacity for appreciating and cultivating the ideal. He articulates a continuity running through animal impulse, practical intelligence, and ideal harmony in reason, society, art, religion, and science. The work is a vision of human life lived sanely. In this first book of the work, Santayana provides an account of how the human animal develops instinct, passion, and chaotic experience into rationality and ideal life. Inspired by Aristotle's De Anima, Darwin's evolutionary theory, and William James's The Principles of Psychology, Santayana contends that the requirements of action in a hazardous and uncertain environment are the sources of the development of mind. More specifically, instinct and imagination are crucial to the emergence of reason from chaos. Separating himself from the typical thought of the time by his recognition of the imagination, Santayana in this volume offers extensive critiques of various philosophies of mind, including those of Kant and the British empiricists.
Year: 2011
Primary URL: http://www.worldcat.org/title/life-of-reason-or-the-phases-of-human-progress/oclc/706466997&referer=brief_results
Primary URL Description: WorldCat listing
Secondary URL: http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=12686
Secondary URL Description: Publisher's listing
Publisher: MIT Press
Type: Scholarly Edition
ISBN: 9780262016742

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