The Philosophy Book

232

See also: Georg Hegel 178–85 ■ Karl Marx 196–203 ■ William James 206–09 ■

Bertrand Russell 236–39

I

n The Life of Reason (1905), the

Spanish-American philosopher

George Santayana wrote that

those who cannot remember the

past are condemned to repeat it.

Santayana’s naturalistic approach

means that he sees knowledge and

belief as arising not from reasoning,

but through interaction between

our minds and the material

environment. Santayana is often

misquoted as saying that those

who do not remember the past are

condemned to repeat it, and this is

sometimes understood to mean

that we must do our best to

remember past atrocities. But

Santayana is actually making a

point about progress. For progress

to be possible, we must not only

remember past experiences, but

also be able to learn from them; to

see different ways of doing things.

The psyche structures new beliefs

through experiences, and this is

how we prevent ourselves from

repeating mistakes.

Real progress, Santayana

believes, is not so much a matter

of revolution as of adaptation, taking

what we have learned from the past

and using it to build the future.

Civilization is cumulative, always

building on what has gone before,

in the same way that a symphony

builds note by note into a whole. ■

IN CONTEXT

BRANCH

Philosophy of history

APPROACH

Naturalism

BEFORE

55 BCE Lucretius, a Roman

poet, explores the origins of

societies and civilizations.

1730s The Italian philosopher

Giovanni Vico claims that all

civilizations pass through

three stages: the age of the

gods; the age of artistocrats

and heroes; and democracy.

This is due to “an uninterrupted

order of causes and effects”.

1807–22 Georg Hegel writes

of history as the continual

progress of mind or spirit.

AFTER

2004 In his book, Memory,

History, Forgetting, French

philosopher Paul Ricoeur

explores the necessity not

only of remembering, but

also of forgetting the past.

THOSE WHO CANNOT

REMEMBER THE PAST

ARE CONDEMNED

TO REPEAT IT

GEORGE SANTAYANA (1863–1952)

Progress is only possible through

an understanding of the past coupled

with a sense of possible alternatives.

The AT&T Building, New York, uses

old architectural patterns in new ways.