Normal Madness or the Other Face of The Life of Reason

Ten years before writing The Life of Reason, George Santayana felt a «romantic inspiration» stemming directly from the influence of Greek tragic spirit, being Nietzsche still little known in his academic environment. A few years later, while at Trinity College, Cambridge, he discovered Plato and Aristotle and the composition of The Life of Reason was the consequence of it, as he himself asserted. Starting from Santayana’s retrospective analysis of the development of his thought during these years, this article aims to show how «normal madness», the central theme of Dialogues in Limbo and a leitmotiv of his philosophy, is for Santayana the other side of the life of reason and the spiritual life. Furthermore, it seeks to demonstrate how he believes, following the wisdom of the Greeks, that it is nothing more than the exercise of rational control over the «subterranean forces» of the human soul, resulting in an imperfect but healthy and vital harmony.