The Life of Reason or The Phases of Human Progress: Reason in Religion, Volume VII, Book Three
George Santayana, Marianne S. Wokeck, and Martin A. Coleman
Abstract
This text, originally published in five books from 1905 to 1906, ranks as one of the greatest works in modern philosophical naturalism. Acknowledging the natural material bases of human life, the book traces the development of the human capacity for appreciating and cultivating the ideal. It articulates a continuity running through animal impulse, practical intelligence, and ideal harmony in reason, society, art, religion, and science. The work is a rendered vision of human life lived sanely. This third book offers a naturalistic interpretation of religion. The text argues that religion is ign ... More
This text, originally published in five books from 1905 to 1906, ranks as one of the greatest works in modern philosophical naturalism. Acknowledging the natural material bases of human life, the book traces the development of the human capacity for appreciating and cultivating the ideal. It articulates a continuity running through animal impulse, practical intelligence, and ideal harmony in reason, society, art, religion, and science. The work is a rendered vision of human life lived sanely. This third book offers a naturalistic interpretation of religion. The text argues that religion is ignoble if regarded as a truthful depiction of real beings and events; but regarded as poetry, it might be the greatest source of wisdom. The book analyzes four characteristic religious concerns: piety, spirituality, charity, and immortality. The book argues for an ideal immortality that does not eradicate the fear of death but offers a way for mortal man to share in immortal things and live in a manner that will bestow on his successors the imprint of his soul.
Keywords:
naturalism,
ideal,
animal impulse,
practical intelligence,
ideal harmony,
piety,
spirituality,
charity,
immortality,
religion
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2014 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780262028325 |
| Published to MIT Press Scholarship Online: September 2015 |
DOI:10.7551/mitpress/9780262028325.001.0001 |
