To George Washburne Howgate
Versailles, France. August 27, 1932
Dear Mr. Howgate,
Did you have, in your list of my articles, “Revolutions in Science,” and “Fifty Years of British Idealism”? They came out in “The New Adelphi”, three or four years ago. The second is about Bradley, and might put my view of German philosophy in a fresh light.
I also forgot, in the haste of your departure, to tell you what I chiefly had to say, which was that the antinomy MacStout-Van Tender has always had a clear solution—a Spinozistic solution—in my own mind. All my oscillations are within legitimate bounds. For the solution is this: Moral bias is necessary to life: but no particular form of life is necessary to the universe (or even to the human intellect, except the form of intellect itself). All contrary moralities are therefore equally acceptable prima facie: but the one organic to any particular species, or nation, or religion, or man must be maintained there unflinchingly, without compromise or heresy.
Yours sincerely,
G Santayana
From The Letters of George Santayana: Book Four, 1928–1932. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2003.
Location of manuscript: Collection of Mrs. George W. Howgate