The life of reason
by George Santayana · first published 1905
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Philosopher George Santayana published The Life of Reason in five volumes between 1905 and 1906. Said to be the most fully-realized articulation of Santayana's moral philosophy, the volumes of this set are Reason in Common Sense, Reason in Society, Reason in Religion, Reason in Art, and Reason in Science; all contained in this edition. Considered by many to be one of the more well-written and poetic works in Western philosophy, The Life of Reason gives us the often-quoted "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
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…distracted; it misses progress by failing in consecutiveness and persistence. This is the condition of children and barbarians, in which instinct has learned nothing from experience.” ~ George Santayana, The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress (Five volumes, 1905 - 1906)
on “If you can’t tell a story about it, it isn’t real” ↗…which is itself a huge debt. I'm into writers who faced life with joy and courage, and who love passing on that gift—Emerson, Stevenson, Chesterton etc. Santayana - I never got anything from the systemy Life of Reason or Realms of Being, maybe I should try again one day. Soliloquies in England etc are short nontechnical essays on all subjects. My favourite books of his are the ones with long essays on particular philosophers…
on “How Philosophers Think” ↗Previously submitted, flagged dead: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2704322 "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana, The Life of Reason (1905-1906) Vol. I, Reason in Common Sense (Copied from http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Santayana) ADDED IN EDIT: OK, since I'm getting downvotes for this (as I write it's at -1) perhaps I'd…
on “Unbelievable statements in GPL related case in the Supreme Court of Mauritius” ↗…With regards items being resubmitted and repeatedly flagged dead, I offer the following quotation: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana, The Life of Reason (1905-1906) Vol. I, Reason in Common Sense (Copied from http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Santayana) Last time I pointed out that an item had been submitted earlier and flagged dead I got downvoted,…
on “Bitcoin Laws Imminent” ↗…direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana (1863 - 1952) [The Life of Reason (1905-1906) Vol. I, Reason in Common Sense] This neatly dovetails with the thoughts that were floating in my head. This part, is the explanation I believe, for the current state of programming, "when…
on “Mozilla announces WebAssembly System Interface, what JVM should have been” ↗This is exactly right and doing so would require each subsequent generation of philosophers to reinvent the wheel Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. – George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905. But history is not philosophy, so the implicit premise, which boils down to, "history is not necessary to philosophy," is wrong-headed, but it is also assuming the conclusion, which is question…
on “I argue that studying the history of philosophy is philosophically unhelpful” ↗“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905.
on “SVB lobbied the government to relax some Dodd-Frank provisions” ↗…is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. --George Santayana, The Life of Reason. The past is never dead. It's not even past. --William Faulkner, Requiem for a Nun.
on “Ask HN: Does knowing the history of a programming language or technology matter?” ↗"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."—George Santayana (The Life of Reason: Reason in Common Sense. Scribner's, 1905: 284)
on “Cockpit voice recorder of Lion Air jet depicts pilots' frantic search for fix” ↗…is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." -- George Santayana (The Life of Reason: The Phases of Human Progress)
on “Modernising RISC OS in 2020: is there hope for the ancient ARM OS?” ↗"Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." - Sir Winston Churchill He is paraphrasing: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905. That inspired René Magritte to paint this: https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/those-who-cannot-remember... Making the connection to events in our lifetime: https://hankeringforhistory.com/those-who-cannot-remember-th...…
on “A future for SQL on the web” ↗…queries because who needs an ORM, migrations run by SQL statements on bash scripts because who needs migrations. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905. > if just 10% of the effort were put on improving the existing Rails application, all the Go microservices crazynes that was going on at this place would have been avoided. https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-...…
on “Ask HN: Is Ruby on Rails still relevant?” ↗“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”–George Santayana, The Life of Reason, 1905.
on “Ask HN: What are your predictions for 2023?” ↗