Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society: A Quarterly Journal in American Philosophy

This article celebrates contributions Angus Kerr-Lawson has made to scholarship involving the thought of George Santayana. Specifically, I examine Kerr-Lawson's development of Santayana's critique of "scientistic materialism." The first part identifies Daniel Dennett and J. J. C. Smart as exemplary instances of philosophers that Kerr-Lawson, following Santayana, has in mind in his criticisms of scientistic materialism. Dennett and Smart, I argue, insist upon scientistic "constraints" that Kerr-Lawson identifies to be hindrances to a robust naturalism. I follow this with a consideration of Kerr-Lawson's attempts to find contemporary materialists akin to Santayana, critically assess them, and conclude by suggesting a "way through": a way towards endorsing the materialist view without reducing it to science.