Victor Nuovo: Santayana tries to explain ‘beauty’

36th in a series“The Sense of Beauty” is the title of a book written by George Santayana. It was his first book, published in 1896. It is a path-breaking book, and it has become a classic. This essay offers a brief exposition of it.Santayana wrote it to answer the question, “How is it that we [i.e. the human species] come to perceive beauty at all?” When we gaze at the western sky at sunset or the eastern sky at sunrise, or look upon a star or a multi-colored rose, or contemplate a Grecian urn, or listen to … (read more)

35th in a series“How came a child born in Spain of Spanish parents to be educated in Boston and to write in the English language?” With this question, the philosopher George Santayana begins a short biographical essay. Jorge Augustín Nicolás Ruiz De Santa … (read more)