Abstract

Long in the making, large in scholarship and scope, this work is a worthy rival to H. W. Schneider’s A History of American Philosophy. With the possible exception of a few of the treatments of technical developments in logic, the material is accessible to the general reader. Flower and Murphey accomplish this not by any dilution of philosophical substance, but by the supplying of relevant background. This includes a statement of Aristotle’s causes, the medieval distinction between nominalism and realism, Locke’s distinction between primary and secondary qualities, Berkeley’s and Hume’s critiques of Locke, and, most importantly, a detailed explanation of Scottish realism.