Abstract

This final volume of Rivaud's Histoire de la Philosophie is a posthumous volume in care of a group of his colleagues, some well known experts in the period such as R. Poirier and P. Burgelin. The second part of the volume: De Hegel à Schopenhauer is still in the press. The core of this first part is a masterful, 220 page exposition of Kant. Though the presentation is parsimonious in commentary, its awareness of issues and problems confronted by Kant, its critical account of doctrinal variations in the different editions, and its sense of the growing objectives of the Kantian synthesis, provide a solid historical account of Kant. The other major authors are given ample treatment. It is to the credit of Rivaud's erudition, an erudition respected and accented by his posthumous editors, to be able to show the major figures of this period in such clear relation to one another: the polemics and correspondence which animated the thought of the times are faithfully recorded. For all these reasons this work is truly a feat of scholarship which compares favorably with Bréhier's and Copleston's works, and which is a worthy rival to the best documented German standard histories. The bibliographies demonstrate the great strides in historico-philosophical scholarship in all major European countries in recent years.--A. M.