George Santayana's and William James's Conflicting Views on Transcendence

This book studies the philosophical work of George Santayana and the nature of his work's relationship with that of American philosopher William James. James is consistently dismissive of the all is vanity state of mind, which arguably represents the opposite of Americas activist, progressive ideals. The Spanish Santayana made the overcoming of vanity, or detachment central to his vital philosophy, which he had to gradually disentangle from the forces he found at work in America. This book, then, traces Santayanas intricate response to James, from its earliest expression in Interpretations, to his later Realms. Rather than attempt to arrive at a final interpretation of either ones philosophy, Antonio Rionda emphasizes what James refers to as the hotspot of each ones thinking: Jamess is best described as positivistic Existentialism, and Santayanas as phenomenological intuitionism. Santayanas post-Hegelian approach to doing philosophy allows for him to incorporate Jamess major insights into his own thinking. The problem of how psychology relates to philosophy led Santayana to posit literary psychology as an alternative to its scientific variety, which once disentangled from Jamess psychologism, represents the greatest virtue of Jamess thinking.