Re: a Santayana saying
Posted by montanius on 2013/12/7 0:33:26
Hi "deadserpent",
Thanks for the help! Now, this is really interesting. I went throught the chapter and I state that both interpretations is correct.
In the article in which the sentece appears he writes of evolution, thus it can be interpreted as simply a "technical" question - it runs like this "(...) and when experience is not retained, as among saveges, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remeber the past are condemend to repeat it.(...) This is the condition of children and barbarians,(...)" - in other words, this in not an ethical question, it is not about reapeting foul deeds or something but any deed - because it is a "pre-moral world".
But some pages back he says: "(...) as we shall see, there is actually a similar foundation in all human and even in all animal natures, which supports a rudimentary morality common to all,(...)": in this case the translation with 重蹈覆辙 is correct, it is about moral and we have to learn our history for avoiding to make the same evil deeds.
(A note: easy to see that the two train of thoughts make the whole text inconsistent. Apart from this Santayana is a good guy, he-he.)
Thanks for your kind help again!
Quote:
Thanks for the help! Now, this is really interesting. I went throught the chapter and I state that both interpretations is correct.
In the article in which the sentece appears he writes of evolution, thus it can be interpreted as simply a "technical" question - it runs like this "(...) and when experience is not retained, as among saveges, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remeber the past are condemend to repeat it.(...) This is the condition of children and barbarians,(...)" - in other words, this in not an ethical question, it is not about reapeting foul deeds or something but any deed - because it is a "pre-moral world".
But some pages back he says: "(...) as we shall see, there is actually a similar foundation in all human and even in all animal natures, which supports a rudimentary morality common to all,(...)": in this case the translation with 重蹈覆辙 is correct, it is about moral and we have to learn our history for avoiding to make the same evil deeds.
(A note: easy to see that the two train of thoughts make the whole text inconsistent. Apart from this Santayana is a good guy, he-he.)
Thanks for your kind help again!
Quote:
deadserpent wrote:
重蹈覆辙
repeating bad history
repeating error(s)
The saying:
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Cited from:
The Life of Reason - Reason in Common Sense, (Scribner's) 1905, page 284
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