Easter College, Inc.
Teacher Education Department
Easter School Road, Guisad, Baguio City
Lit 2: World Literature
Name: Baccangen, Jadeross M.
Course & Year: BSED-Engl 3
Date: February 20, 2021
Schedule: 2:30-4:00 ThF
Directions: Read George Santayana's War and answer the following questions.
1. According to Santayana, what are the causes of men's fights, and what kind of
fight they try to avoid?
According to Santayana, the concept of fighting is a radical instinct of men that
originated from various reasons on how a person feels towards another. Humans have
the urge to fight for everything, anything or nothing at all just to feel pleasure and fulfill
their desire. Men “fight over words, fancies, or women, or they will fight because they
dislike each other's looks, or because they have met walking in opposite directions.”
People try to find faults within others to judge them and see to it that they are superior to
them and of different levels in terms of physical attributes, style, education, wealth, and
social standing. We cannot accept that some people are good, better, or excels at things
compared to us. Hence, try to pull them down being inconsiderate of their feelings
because of the “deep delight to the blood” as the outcome of our actions.
On the other hand, the kind of fight men try to avoid is “to fight for a reason," the real and
true fight that needs to be participated by individuals who are brave and true to their
intentions. However, fighting for a purpose as what Santayana claims “is something your
true warrior despises” which is both saddening and disappointing considering it is their
pledge as individuals to our society.
2. What makes courage a virtue and what makes it the opposite?
Courage is when someone is true to his ideals, objectives, and aspirations; to fully
execute one’s purpose as an individual and a part of the society with selflessness and
empathy towards others. Being courageous does not imply that anyone who takes part
in a fight or battle can call himself a heroic and valiant person for it takes more than that
and achieve such virtue.
Courage with ill intentions from a person or blinded by other things is not being
courageous for it is the cowardice of a person. Victory and success do not make
courage a virtue alone for it requires far greater things to discover and realize its true
form. Overall, like what Santayana states, “to call war the soil of courage and virtue is
like calling debauchery the soil of love.”
3. Explain the line, “There are panegyrists of war who say that without a periodical
bleeding, a race decays and loses its manhood.” Does the author agree with this?
What does he say about it? Do you agree with his views? Why or why not?
One aftereffect of a war is the death of many people from different ages, groups, and
races, it decreases the world’s population, but I would not call it a favorable condition
towards humanity. The fans or supporters of the war find pleasure in the many negative
effects of war which is impractical and erratic. These patriarchal self-centered men
believe that we must make sacrifices which is the lives of others and our environment or
else it would be the end of our existence, an ironic defense of their side.
No, Santayana does not agree with the line and says that what humans have
experienced in the past “is directly opposed to this shameless assertion.” It is the
negative after-effects of war that makes a race decays and loses its manhood. He adds
that “the glories of war are all blood-stained, delirious, and infected with crime.”
Yes, I agree with his views for it is truly based on the past and experiences of the
previous generations. We have suffered a great deal and are still facing and trying to
resolve the consequences of the actions from the past.
4. According to the author, what are the after-effects of war? Going over our history,
what are the positive and negative impacts wars had on us. Does the positive
outweigh the negative or the other way around? Explain.
According to Santayana, “it is war that wastes a nation's wealth, choked its industries,
kills it’s flowed, arrows its sympathies, condemns it to be governed by adventurers, and
leave the puny, deformed, and unmanly to breed the next generation. Internecine war,
foreign and civil, brought about the greatest setback which the life of reason has ever
suffered; it exterminated the Greek and Italian aristocracies.”
The negative effects of war include human and environmental annihilation, economic
depletion, human suffering, the spread of harmful diseases, and displacement of people
from their country and loved ones. The positive impacts of war comprise shirt economic
growth and technological advances. However, just by simply looking at the comparison,
reading Santayana's views, and looking back on our history, the negative impacts of war
outweigh its positive effects. Humanity suffers tremendously because of war and its
negative aftermath. In consideration, we can still attain the positive impacts even without
the presence of physical violence and war.
5. Check out the links below. Compare and contrast the two incidents. Which of the
military/police response would you prefer? Why?
The first article shows an act of compassion and love towards a man by an army
reservist. The army witnesses a man without wearing a required mask outside of the
house and the reservist gives out a face mask to the man and other vehicle owners or
passersby. The second article depicts a cop who shoots to death retired military
personnel. The police assume that the man has a firearm and is about to shoot, but the
victim's sister claims that the dead man didn’t have a gun. What the police chief from
Mandaluyong as a "judgment call" can also be deemed as police brutality and unlawful
use of power.
The two have the same conditions in regards to what or how the police and army
contribute or help for the safety and betterment of our lives and country. The people
involved need to choose between rules, protocols, and morals as a person, but we must
always keep in mind the importance of a person's life amid these set prohibitions.
I would prefer to experience the article that tells how the army reserves show
compassion towards others, especially those who are in need. Carrying out the duty of
someone is important and significant, but we must always make sure that to remind
ourselves to have love and respect for others.