Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Three philosophical poets: Lucretius, Dante, and Goethe (Harvard studies in comparative literature) by George Santayana ISBN: 0-8154-0361-5 Publisher: Cooper Square Publishers Pub. Date: 1970 Format: Unknown Binding List Price(USD): $25.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)
Rating: 5
Summary: Brilliant introduction to major philosophical traditions
Comment: This remarkable book is composed of six lectures which Santayana read at Columbia University in 1910--lectures based on a regular course he taught at Harvard College. It is extraordinary that there should ever have been university lectures of such outstanding quality. It is doubtful that we have anything to approach it today. As merely a book, "Three Philosophical Poets" is a masterpiece of style and interpretation. The three philosophical poets of the title are Lucretius, Dante, and Goethe, each of whom represents the three main sources of the major speculative systems of Western philosophy. Lucretius, the materialist, is the poet of naturalism; Dante, the Christian and Platonist, is the poet of supernaturalism; and Goethe, the romanticist, is the poet of experience and idealism.
What gives this book its special excellence is Santayana's ability to describe each of the traditions with sympathetic understanding. Although a materialist himself, Santayana does not use the book do advance any specific philosophical agenda. He does not try to score points against the speculative traditions he dislikes (e.g. romanticism, idealism), nor does he make any effort to trump the materialism that he favored or the Catholicism he admired. Instead, he seeks to uncover the special motivations and passions that lead to each tradition, showing how even the most dubious philosophical ideas have a sort of plausibility when one understands how intensely human they are. For example, the supernaturalism of Dante is ultimately an expression of the idea that things are to be understood by their uses or purposes. This, in the final analysis, is what unites Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle with the Christian tradition. The Greek naturalists, on the other hand, had a totally different view. "Nothing arises in the body in order that we may use it," insisted Lucretius, "but what arises brings forth its use." Here we have a discarding of final causes typical not merely of naturalism, but of modern science as well.
There is no better introduction to materialism-naturalism, platonism-Christianity, and romanticism-idealism. Santayana clears up scores of misconceptions which have developed regarding these traditions and shows that no philosophical vision can be entirely just to the totality of human life if it does not take into consideration at least some of the insights peculiar to each of these traditions. It does not speak well for our culture that this beautifully written work should have been allowed to fall out of print.
 |
Title: Skepticism and Animal Faith: Introduction to a System of Philosophy by George Santayana ISBN: 0486202364 Publisher: Dover Publications Pub. Date: 01 February, 1955 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
 |
Title: The Last Puritan: A Memoir in the Form of a Novel by George Santayana ISBN: 0262691787 Publisher: Bradford Book Pub. Date: 04 August, 1995 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
 |
Title: The Life of Reason (Great Books in Philosophy) by George Santayana ISBN: 1573922102 Publisher: Prometheus Books Pub. Date: 01 May, 1998 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
 |
Title: Against the Current: Essays in the History of Ideas. by Isaiah Berlin, Henry Hardy ISBN: 0691090262 Publisher: Princeton University Press Pub. Date: 01 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
 |
Title: Character and Opinion in the United States (History of Ideas Series) by George Santayana ISBN: 0887388906 Publisher: Transaction Publishers Pub. Date: 01 July, 1991 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
