Maska i myśl.
Mask and thought.

Self and ars vivendi in the thought of George Santayana.

Summary/Abstract: At the end of the 20th century, after a few decades of oblivion, the thought of George Santayana (1863–1952), a major figure of the so-called Golden Age of American Philosophy, reappeared as subject of academic interest. It is believed that Santayana’s originality within the intellectual milieu of the dominant at that time in anglo-saxon context pragmatist and analytical thought contributed to this delayed reception. This text, being part of a broader project, looks at the concept of „the self” emerging from Santayana’s work, with particular emphasis on its temporal intricacies. Interpretative movement, which according to my thesis is a requirement posited by life itself, provides for subjective unity and is expressed by the recurrent term of „mask” as a trace of human existence. The idea of playing out one’s facticity implies the question „how?”, which in turn justifies the use of an aesthetic concept of „grace”which may be linked with the idea of authentic existence. The juxtaposition with elements of Heidegger’s philosophy, which is a novelty in research, throws some light on Santayana’s fascination with German thinker and allows to highlight the hermeneutic-existential side of his thought, which has been underestimated by scholarship so far.

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