menu

Thinkers

George Santayana

American · North America · 1863 to 1952

Spanish-born American philosopher who held that nature is matter, and that mind, art and ideals grow out of it.

What it is

George Santayana (1863 to 1952) was a Spanish-born philosopher, poet and critic who wrote in English and is counted among American thinkers. He was born in Madrid, was brought to Boston as a boy in 1872, studied at Harvard and taught philosophy there from 1889. In 1912 he left for Europe, lived there for the rest of his life, and died in Rome.

He kept his Spanish citizenship all his life. His philosophy is a naturalism, which means that for him matter comes first and everything else, including thought, art and ideals, grows out of the natural world.

The main ideas

  • Matter first. The material world is the ground of existence. Mind and value depend on it, not the other way round.
  • Animal faith. Belief that the world of natural objects is there rests on what he called animal faith, the basic trust that we live and act by.
  • Essences. Colours, tastes and ideal objects are essences, which are universals that have being but do not exist in the way material things do.
  • Realms of being. In his late system he sorts what there is into realms, among them the realm of matter and the realm of essence.
  • Beauty. His early book on aesthetics is concerned with the nature of aesthetic feeling.

What it looks like in practice

Imagine someone who has lost faith in a grand explanation of life and feels that everything is therefore empty. Santayana would point to the ordinary beliefs that this person still lives by, such as that the world is still there tomorrow, and would say that values arise from living creatures in a natural world and need no larger guarantee. This is an illustration of the idea, not a passage from his writing.

Books and moments

  • The Sense of Beauty (1896) is a major book on aesthetics.
  • The Life of Reason began to appear in 1905 and gives an account of reason.
  • Scepticism and Animal Faith (1923) introduces his mature view of knowledge and belief.
  • Realms of Being is a four-book system, completed in 1940.
  • Persons and Places (1944) is his autobiography.
  • 1912 is the year he left Harvard for Europe.

Questions and criticism

  • Proof. If belief in the world rests on faith and not on proof, it is fair to ask what makes some beliefs better grounded than others.
  • Values from nature. If values grow out of natural life, it is fair to ask how they can guide us and not merely describe us.
  • Between two countries. It is fair to ask how far his Spanish background and his American career should be read together.

Close neighbours

He taught at Harvard in the same years as William James and Josiah Royce, and the pages on them show the American thought around him.

Written by epchē in our own words, and checked against independent sources on 29 October 2026. The sources are listed below.

Who they connect to

Influenced by

  • Baruch Spinoza · He admired Spinoza and wrote about him often. (scholars disagree about this link)

Other American thinkers

Sources we used

See where you stand Find them on the map

Something wrong or missing on this page? Tell us.