Journal of the History of Philosophy

Documents AMERICA AND THE WEST AT MID-CENTURY: AN UNPUBLISHED SANTAYANA ESSAY ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF ENRICO CASTELLI Among the unpublished manuscripts left by George Santayana is the draft of a preface written for a projected translation into English of two works by the Italian philosopher Enrico Castelli. Long resident in Rome, Santayana had come to know Castelli when the latter invited him to participate in the Institute of Philosophical Studies' first international congress, to which Santayana contributed his paper "Some Corollaries to Materialism."' When he read 11 Tempo Esaurito and Introduzione ad una Fenomenologia della Nostra Epoca early in 1948, Santayana agreed that their translation would answer a need in the English-speaking world. 2 He wrote Castelli that "the public in England if not in the United States is now ready to be convinced that something has gone radically wrong at least since the Reformation or 9 . . the French Revoltuion." The West, but especially the United States, had lost all sense of continuity: "Modern 'idealism' or 'psychologism' which reduces reality to appearance, and, in America, truth to opinion, removes all conception of external control or pre-formed standards: and the acceleration of actions without a purpose has turned subjective frivolity into a contemporary nightmare. Looking back to the 13th or even to the 19th century we feel that mankind has lost its way."' Santayana wrote that his preface would be "expressly written for the American public" and distinguished his own premises from Castelii's Catholicism: You say that it is impossible to turn back and recover the circumstances and sentiments of the past. Of course it is impossible in the concrete or pictorially: we can't dress or fight or speak as in the 13th century. But many of us can retain or recover the faith, supernatural and moral, that animated that age: although even the Church does not hope to convert the whole world: so that the best that can be aimed at in that special form is that a Catholic communion should always survive, scattered or concentrated in particular places, until the Day of Judgement . As to what may ensue then we may have our different expectations. I think that a revelation of supernatural control and destiny is not necessarY to secure a valid principle of order in morals and politics. This would be secured if scientifically we made out clearly two things: 1st the real conditions of life on earth, and 2nd, the real needs and potentialities of human nature in each man or group of men. The Greeks had a rational view of human exisPermission to publish Santayana'sessayhas been graciouslygranted by Mrs. DanielCory, executrixof the Santayana literary estate, and Mr. Edward Berkeley,Jr., curator of the GeorgeSantayana Collection, Barrett Library, Universityof Virginia. Quotation from Santayana's unpublished letters has been kindly allowed by Mrs. Cory. In preparing this article, the author benefited in a specialway from conversation with the late Professor Castelli. ' In II Materialismo Storico: Atti del Congresso lnternazionale di Filosofia Promos~o dell" Instituto di Studi Filosofici, Roma, 15-20 November, 1946(Milan: Castellani, 1947),pp. 211-18. , The original editions of Castelli's books wereII Tempo Esaurito (Rome: Edizioni della Bussola, 1947) and Introduzione ad una Fenomenologia della Nostra Epoca (n.p.: Fussi, 1948). WilliamHolzbcrgerreports the followinginan unpublishedletter from Santayana to Arthur A. Cohen, dated Rome, Feb. 9, 1948:"I am about to read a new Italian account of Existentialismby Prof. Castelli, who is a serene Catholic and a man of the world, who may make things clearer to me." ' Unpublished lette[, Santayana to Castelli, Sept. 4, 1948. [449] 450 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY tence. We, with more experience and modesty, might frame various social systems, realistic and humane, by which to live according to our variable human natures.' Their philosophical differences, to which Santayana also alludes in the latter part of his draft preface, had been mentioned in a still earlier letter to Castelli, which acknowledged the special richness readers of the translation would find in the author's philosophy: "Apart from any . . . sympathy or divergence in our personal opinions, I think your traditional roots combined with your active participation in contemporary intellectual life will open a vista for many...