Life as Insinuation: George Santayana’s Hermeneutics of Finite Life and Human Self

In this book, Katarzyna Kremplewska offers a thorough analysis of Santayana’s conception of human self, viewed as part of his larger philosophy of life. Santayana emerges as an author of a provocative philosophy of drama, in which human life is acted out. Kremplewska demonstrates how his thought addresses the dynamics of human self in this context and the possibility of sustaining self-integrity while coping with the limitations of finite life. Focusing on particular aspects of Santayana’s thought such as his conception of the tragic aspect of existence, and the role of the doctrine of spirit in his philosophical anthropology and critique of culture, this book also sets Santayana’s thought in substantial dialogue with other thinkers, such as Heidegger, Bergson, and Nietzsche. Like Santayana’s philosophy, this book seeks to build passages between theoretical reflection and practical life with the possibility of a good life in view.