Santayana’s political ideas, as contained in Dominations and Powers and dispersed throughout his other works, have not been given the attention they deserve. This is the first comprehensive study of Santayana’s political hermeneutics as embedded in his general philosophy and intimately connected to his cultural criticism. Managing necessity and harmonizing diversity, negative anthropology, an Apollonian individualism and naturalistic humanism, are only a few of the interpretative categories used to elucidate the dense, ambiguous and ironic ruminations of Santayana and reveal their timeliness. Discussion of other thinkers—from Plato to Ricoeur—brings to light the essentially dialogical character of his work.