Expert: Irulan Serena - 2/18/2006

Question
im doing an essay on philosophy of history. Can you help me with this
What does the following sentence mean:
A country without memory is a country of madmen.

Answer
N,

A country without memory is a country of madmen.

This is a quote from George Santayana – Spanish philosopher, poet, literary and cultural critic.

From his readings and life one can deduct that what he meant was the following –

A country forges its progress and cultural future by remembering and building on the mistakes of the past – thus if the country has no past due to lack of memory – the future is uncertain and  bound to be full of colossal mistakes.   

Here is a site that will give you more information of Santayana and his influence on American philosophy.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/santayana/

There are many other sites that will give you information on Santayana - use his name as the keyword for the search.


Hope this helps,

Regards,

Irulan