Santayana on Education. Formal education at school and a highly specialized university education constitute just a part of a much wider educational life-long project, which is to activate and constantly develop such potentialities in each of us as: reasoning, understanding, imagination, critical thinking, creativity, harmonizing conflicting interests, self-expression, and enjoyment. An educated person, apart from being an expert in the society of technocrats, is able/should be able to self-develop and consciously realize ideas that are selected and pursued more or less independently of the current political pressures, cultural fashions, market demand, economic dependencies, and social conventions. This is usually problematic, since we, more often than not, are unable to resist the predominant influences of our time and of our milieu. Current stereotypes are so strongly imposed by sundry institutions upon each of us that their critical assessment is one of the biggest educational challenges, as is the ability to express one’s own worldview by means of a work (philosophical and literary works for example) as well as appreciation of the good and beautiful things around as to make us happier. At this point his philosophy assumes a humanistic and perfective character since a part of living a good life is understanding life — “to be happy you must be wise” (EGP 152) — and working on the constant development of one’s potentialities, which is most effectively realizable by studying the liberal arts. In opposition to those who understand the term ‘progress’ as the accumulation of goods, creation of new devices, and the development of social institutions, Santayana saw ‘progress’ as a process of “improvement or approach to perfection in some specific direction” (PGS 499), for example, the progress in better and better expressing one’s character and in having a fuller life in general. The accumulation of goods, the creation of new devices, and the development of social institutions, even accumulation of technical knowledge can, but do not have to contribute to having a better life; instead, they can become a burden and a misfortune for those who are not able to detect and use the opportunities that are available. Education, especially a liberal arts education, should be instrumental in understanding all this.
Santayana on Love
Santayana on Love. Love has a natural, animal, instinctive, sexual, and biological basis and, on the other hand, it has some ideal object (RS 8), which means that someone we love, apart from being desired and needed, is also seen as one embodying some impersonal ideal or ideals that we, the loving persons, long for and prize, the beautiful for example. Hence, someone we love is desired and, at the same time, idealized in our imagination: the loving person imposes upon the loved person some features (one or many) that is believed to be objective (truly belonging to that loved person), perfect, and, perhaps, long-lasting, and these are the essential factors that make us say that we love. Hence, a role of imagination; actually, Santayana, in the chapter “Love” of Reason in Society, narrows down the term ‘love’ to “imaginative passion, to being in love” (RS 7). The role of imagination in love is potentially hugely important because the lover can, if s/he is able to, use his/her imagination to approach the lover as if the lover were herself/himself the ideal (Singer 2009, 36). In other words, we do not love other people as such (although we desire them as such), but rather we love the ideal features they possess or seem to possess; love is an appreciation of ideals, not a relationship between loving persons (Madigan 2011). However, these ideals, are hardly ever fulfilled (IPR 126), hence love is hardly ever to be consumed in such a way as desire can be, especially sexual union. Imagination can be unlimitedly developed: “To possess things and persons in idea is the only pure good to be got out of them; to possess them physically or legally is a burden and a snare (PP 428).”
Santayana: A Philosophical Guide
Philosophers provide us with different things: thoughts, inventions, reflections on various topics, worldviews, lifestyles, and their own visions of philosophy. Some of them can be seen as masters who can teach us how to live well, others as scientists who provide us with theories, still others can serve us as guides and interpreters.
I have been encouraged to blog about Spanish-American philosopher, best-selling author, and poet, George Santayana, or Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás (1863-1952), seen as a thinker who, by means of his abundant output and wide scope of his interests, can show us his own way of looking at practicing philosophy, at other philosophers, philosophical schools, arts, philosophical problems within different disciplines, and even philosophical reflections about the places he visited.
Courses Online
- Communication as Critical Inquiry
- Philosophy
- Multiculturalism in Canada and the US
- Discursos anglo-hispanos e imágenes en internet
- English-Spanish Talks
Español
Mis textos en español son dedicados principalmente a tres áreas de investigaciones.
I
La primera es la filosofía de George (Jorge) Santayana, un pensador
nortamericano-español, y eso incluye, entre otros, las siguientes publicaciones:
Introducción a “Simposio sobre la filosofia politica de Jorge Santayana“, director invitado Krzysztof (Chris) Piotr Skowroński, Limbo. Boletin Internacional de estudios sobre Santayana (Spain), 29, 2009; “El pragmatismo abulense de George Santayana: un epitome” en: Debats. Revista trimestral editada por la Institució Alfons el Magnanim (Valencia), 2010/3 (108), pp. 82-83; “Santayana y America.” En: Santayana: un pensador universal (ed. J. Beltrán, M. Garrido y S. Sevilla). Universidad de Valencia, 2011, pp. 49-54; “Aspectos ontológicos de la obra de arte literaria en Santayana. Un bosquejo introductorio” en: Limbo. Boletín de estudios internacionales sobre Santayana (Spain), 28 (2008), pp. 137-158.
2004-2024
I have given the following courses in recent years:
- Persuasion and Rhetoric (practice)
- Anglo-hispanos discursos e imágenes en Internet
- Multiculturalism in Canada and the US
- Filozofia
- Politics and Aesthetics
- Filozofia (dla Filologii Czeskiej)
- Filozofia (dla studentów Instytutu Sztuki)
- Gombrowicz i filozofia współczesna (studia doktoranckie z filozofii)
- Persuasion and Rhetoric (dla studentów English in Public Communication)
- Multiculturalism (Erasmus students)
- Politics and Aesthetics (Erasmus students)
- Persuasion and Rhetoric (in English for the students of English in Public Communication)
- Philosophy (Humanistic subject in English for the students of English Philology and of EPC)
- Erasmus programme (in English for international Students)
- Doktryny i idee artystyczne sztuki współczesnej (dla studentów Instytutu Sztuki)
- Philosophy (dla studentów anglistyki i English in Public Communication)
- Redagowanie tekstu naukowego w języku obcym (dla doktorantów filozofii)
- Doktryny i idee artystyczne sztuki współczesnej (dla studentów Instytutu Sztuki, studia magisterskie)
- Filozofia kultury(dla studentów kulturoznawstwa)
- Filozoficzne podstawy etyki i wychowania (Pedagogika)
- Antropologia filozoficzna (dla studentów filozofii)
- Filozofia(dla studentów politologii)
- Filozofia amerykańska (dla studentów filozofii)
- Estetyka (dla studentów roku filozofii)
- Filozofia (dla Germanistyki wieczorowej)
- Filozofia kultury (dla studentów I roku kulturoznawstwa mgr, studia dzienne i zaoczne oraz dla studentów filozofii).
- Wybrane zagadnienia z antroposfery kultury (dla studentów II roku Instytutu Sztuki)
- Filozofia kultury (dla studentów Instytutu Sztuki)
- American Philosophy (dla anglistyki dziennej i zaocznej)
- Historia filozofii (dla studentów I roku kulturoznawstwa – lic.)
- Philosophy (dla studentów anglistyki)
- Aesthetics (dla studentów anglistyki)
- Estetyka (dla studentów Katedry Biotechnologii)
- Filozofia(dla studentów Stosunków międzynarodowych zaocznych 2010/2011)
- Translatorium i redagowanie tekstu w języku obcym (angielskim)(dla studentów Studium Doktoranckiego z Filozofii)
- Contemporary Polish Philosophy (for foreign students)
- Wykład w języku obcym (dla studentów IV roku filozofii)
- Historia idei i doktryn estetycznych (dla studentów II roku Instytutu Sztuki)
- Filozofia współczesna (XX wieku, nieanalityczna, dla studentów III roku filozofii)
- American Philosophy(dla studentów filozofii)
- Philosophy (dla studentów I i II roku filologii angielskiej, studia dzienne i wieczorowe)
- Estetyka(dla studentów III roku kulturoznawstwa, studia zaoczne)
- Filozofia i etyka polityki (dla studentów politologii, I rok mgr)
- Myśl Europejska (dla studentów II roku Filologii Polskiej i dla studentów Europeistyki)
- Filozofia kultury (dla studentów filozofii)
- Filozofia kultury (dla studentów I roku kulturoznawstwa mgr, studia dzienne i zaoczne).
- Filozofia polska (dla studentów filozofii)
- Filozofia społeczna (dla studentów socjologii)
- Elementy filozofii (dla studentów socjologii)
- Historia filozofii ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem antropologii filozoficznej
- Etyka (dla studentów kulturoznawstwa)
- Etyka w biznesie
- Filozoficzne i psychologiczne koncepcje człowieka
- Język angielski
- Język angielski w pracy psychologa (dla studentów psychologii)
- Translatorium (dla studentów III roku filozofii)
- Person, Identity, Dignity (e-teaching dla studentów filozofii University of Illinois at Springfield)
- Readings into the History of Philosophy — American Pragmatism (e-teaching dla studentów filozofii University of Illinois at Springfield)
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