A critical edition of a classic work by the renowned philosopher
George Santayana evaluating key movements in American intellectual
history.
Winds of Doctrine presents six essays by the internationally
recognized critic and philosopher George Santayana. The essays, edited
by David E. Spiech, Martin A. Coleman, and Faedra Lazar Weiss, and
introduced by Paul Forster, address the broad sweep of intellectual
trends--or, as the title suggests, the ever-changing winds of
thought--of the Spanish-born American thinker's time. The topics range
from the secularization of American culture to the rise of religious
modernism to the "genteel tradition" in American philosophy, the subject
of Santayana's final lecture in America and perhaps his best known
essay.
The original Winds of Doctrine, published in 1913, was the first book
published after Santayana's 1912 departure for Europe. Santayana had
felt stifled at Harvard for some time, and his long-contemplated
resignation from academia released him from previous obligations and
allowed him a new freedom to think and write. Much later, Santayana
remarked on the significance of that choice to step away: "In Winds of
Doctrine and my subsequent books, a reader of my earlier writings may
notice a certain change of climate. . . . It was not my technical
philosophy that was principally affected, but rather the meaning and
status of philosophy for my inner man."
An insightful document of American intellectual history, supplemented
with annotations and rich textual commentary, Winds of Doctrine is a
vital and engaging survey of the religious, political, philosophical,
and literary trends of the twentieth century.
