Santayana, George

Santayana, George (b Madrid, 16 Dec. 1863; d Rome, 26 Sept. 1952). Spanish-American philosopher and man of letters. He spent most of his life in Europe and always kept his Spanish nationality, but he was educated in the USA, wrote in English, and is generally considered American by adoption. His literary output included a novel, an autobiography, poetry, and literary criticism, as well as philosophical works. In these he avoided technical terms and he was admired for his unpedantic style. His ideas on art were part of an overall theory of values embracing morals and rational living, although as he became more withdrawn from the world (he spent his final years in a convent), his views became more morally detached. His best-known book is The Theory of Beauty (1896), in which he defined beauty as ‘pleasure objectified’ and argued that the justification of art is that it adds to human happiness. Some of the analogies between the visual arts and music that he expressed here looked forward to abstract art.