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.

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