Appearing in the “Cairo Declaration on Human Rights in Islam” as an undefined referent for the limits on freedom of expression in Islam, Shariah is still to be chased as an indefinable referent which restricts freedom of the expression in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Iran’s Press Law as well as Constitution unveil Shariah’s referent to be a person: the Jurist-Ruler around whom a cult of personality is legalized in terms of “Imamate” and around whom all the limits on freedom (...) of expression revolve. Interpretation of Shariah is not a solution but part of the problem in Iran. Such problem can be dealt in terms of three modes of self-expression which were invented by the Iranian Reformists to avoid self-censorship. The notion of master-signifier can be the key to unraveling the problem of self-referentiality in freedom of expression and its Reformist solution in Iran’s legal system. (shrink)

A rich collection of essays in honor of Msgr. Mansion, including a study of Mansion's work, several essays on Plato, studies of various aspects of Aristotle's philosophy--textual and systematic analyses of his metaphysics, logic, psychology and ethics--and some essays on the influence of Plato and Aristotle on medieval philosophy. Contributors include Diès, Wilpert, Ross, and Minio-Palaello.--A. R.

Written for a popular audience, this book extols the virtues of individuality--A. R.

A translation of an important and neglected work of Averroes, with an excellent introduction, placing the book in its historical context and evaluating it philosophically. In the course of his close and meticulous refutation of Al Ghazali, who had denied the possibility of a rational philosophy and advanced arguments for the priority of mystical revelation, Averroes discusses the eternality of the world, the logical relation between cause and effect, and the relation between potentiality and actuality. There is also a separate (...) volume of notes, indices and an interesting list of contradictions to be found in Aristotle. A significant scholarly work. --A. R. (shrink)

A biography of the famous revivalist, readable and scholarly, though occasionally rather diffuse. Its claim to see Sunday's work "in terms of a critical reorientation in the ideological structure of American life" is not fully realized; the book tends to waver between biography and sociology without satisfying the requirements of either.--A. R.

A collection of previously printed but newly revised essays. The author holds that "art both creates and discovers values and meanings," because it reveals its object both in itself and through itself, because it is, as it were, an opaque sign. Art is semi-autonomous; the world of art organizes experience, yet does not find its validation in it. There are some essays in and about literary criticism, but the author is primarily concerned with the "manner in which art informs culture," (...) and only secondarily with works of art themselves. The book is important and illuminating.--A. R. (shrink)

From a study of Hindu scriptures, the author concludes that there is a "spiritual overturning in consciousness," after which there will be a purification and a Golden Age. The book is disorganized and diffuse.--A. R.

A study of the conditions necessary for the freedom of man's action, this work concludes that the source of meaningfulness lies in man's relation to God, and in man's search for His will.--A. R.

A revised and expanded version of studies by McKinsey, Winet and the authors, in axiomatic theories of value, together with a report of experiments designed to test the formal theories. This volume makes an important contribution to the theoretical and experimental investigation of values and decision-making, both of which subjects are still in their infancy. Experimental studies by Mosteller and Nogee and theoretical discussions of von Neumann and Morgenstern are criticized and improved. Ch. IV contains original suggestions for a theory (...) of utility involving incomparable values. -- A. R. A. (shrink)

A theistic study which rejects negative and purely analogical theology. An historical review of the traditional categories applied to the divine nature shows that God's perfection includes an infinity of possibles whose actualization is a matter of free but controlled selection. The argument does not always appear precise or inevitable, but it is suggestive.--A. R.

This introduction to Dilthey's basic philosophical assumptions is mainly seen through the eyes of his critics. The author limits himself to sources found in Spanish and omits from his commentary the studies of Stein, Misch, Heyen, Landgrebe, and Hennig, among others.--A. R.

A revised second edition of an elementary ethics text which has been widely used since its publication in 1947. Much new material has been added, and the old re-written and re-arranged.--A. R.

A collection of previously printed articles on Greek philosophy, from the pre-Socratics to the neo-Platonists. It includes an article defending the methods and aims of the historian of philosophy, in which Bréhier argues that the problems of philosophy cannot be properly understood outside of their historical contexts.--A. R.

An important contribution to the philosophical inquiry on death. Ferrater Mora rescues the problem from the underground men of philosophy and places it in the ample yet fastidious perspective of reason. The first three chapters discuss "death" or "cessation" in inorganic, organic, and human nature. The last resumes the history of Western opinion on the subject. The subtitle, "an outline of an integrationist philosophy," indicates no facile eclecticism but a willingness to avoid absolutes. The main asset of this enormously learned (...) book is the brilliance with which the author leads us through a labyrinth of conflicting attitudes and presuppositions, always sustained by the dynamism of an inquiry in which doubt is not an abyss but a ground.--A. R. (shrink)

An argument based on recent discoveries in physics and biology, for "ontological dualism," on the grounds that a materialistic determinism cannot account for the order discovered by science. The corollary that "space is not the container of all active reality" is also drawn.--A. R.

An argument for the historical continuity of Neo-Platonism and the Early Academy, resting principally on the positions held by 1) Posidonius on the relation between the soul and mathematics, 2) Speusippus on the relation between the One and the material principle, and 3) Boethius on the relation between degrees of being and degrees of knowledge. There is also an analysis of the elements of Neo-Platonism in Aristotle's metaphysics. A scholarly and readable book, certain to be controversial.--A. R.

A collection of previously unpublished essays--philosophical, literary and critical--presenting the influential views of T. E. Hulme and throwing new light upon the complex personality of their originator. The book also includes Hulme's war diary, his controversy with Russell on war, some poems and fragments, and a complete bibliography of his writings.--A. R.

This is an able book of essays, written by well-qualified scholars, about an unjustly neglected nineteenth century German philosopher. He is known in this country primarily as the founder of "formal sociology," but much of what he has to say belongs with equal propriety to the philosophy of culture. The aim of the volume is to rehabilitate Simmel's reputation, which suffered much among sociologists from attacks by Abel and Sorokin. The volume also contains about 100 pages of Simmel's own essays (...) in translation: "The Ruin," "The Handle," and "The Aesthetic Significance of the Face," among others.--A. R. A. (shrink)

A text, primarily behavioristic in approach, covering the psychological and physiological development of the human organism. Its analyses of ontogenetic change are supplemented with brief phylogenetic descriptions.--A. R.

Taking the artistic return to "primitive symbols" to be a sign of renewed religious consciousness, Mr. Baird analyzes in detail the use and meaning of symbols in the work of Melville, Gaugin, Stevenson, and others who have travelled in the East. The author, who is much influenced by Jung and Langer, finds this atavistic return promising both artistically and culturally. An erudite work, critically perceptive, but far more valuable for its literary insights than for its psychological theses.--A. R.

A fairly routine work of Thomist scholarship which argues that, though both Aquinas and Aristotle regard prudence as a virtue, Aristotle cannot and Aquinas must analyze the vice of imprudence. The difference is found to depend on Aquinas' stress on the liberty of the will.--A. R.

An interesting study of Croce's political philosophy, its relation to his ethics and metaphysics, as well as its place in the political milieu of pre-war Europe. The author argues that Croce's political philosophy, unlike Hegel's, is both humanistic and liberal. --A. R.

An analysis of the realism of M. Blondel, with an attempt to distinguish its traditional elements from its novel features. Blondel's emphasis on the inseparability of philosophy and action is argued to be the foundation of his return to Christian realism.--A. R.

An excellent introduction to symbolic logic. Part I, "Principles of Inference and Definition," carries the reader through the first order predicate calculus with identity, and relates the formal theory of inference to many standard informal arguments. Chapter 8 contains by far the best elementary discussion of the theory of definition now in print. Part II, "Elementary Intuitive Set Theory," gives a clear introduction to the fundamental concepts, and prepares the way for more advanced work in the field. The book is (...) distinguished by the number and variety of the applications of logic considered, both in formal mathematical reasoning, and in the axiomatization of various scientific theories. The final sections contain material which should be of interest to experts as well as novices.--A. R. A. (shrink)

In an attempt to develop a synthesis between biology and metaphysics, the author argues that the categories of metaphysics should properly come not from an abstract logic, but rather from "organic nature." The arguments of the mechanists and vitalists are re-interpreted; the position of the vitalist is defended and broadened so as to provide a foundation for the new science of psycho-biology, which is to merge with metaphysics.--A. R.

An application of Einsteinian physics to biology and psychology, in the hope of developing a "unified ethical theory."--A. R.

A critical analysis of Hegel's aesthetics, both in its relation to his dialectical phenomenology and in its use as a foundation for criticism. The author holds that Hegel's aesthetics is more a philosophy of the history of art than a philosophy of art, properly speaking. There is an annotated bibliography.--A. R.

Mauchaussat gives a detailed, chronological, and dense picture of Lachelier's thought and its milieu. He studies with erudition the connections with thinkers of analogous tendencies: Maine de Biran, Ravaisson, Boutroux, and Brunschvicg, and, outside the French tradition, Lachelier's relations and debts to Kant.--A. R.

A formal exposition of the author’s controversial views for which Warren Burger, then on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, attempted unsuccessfully to have him disbarred. The second half of the book consists of a reprint in full of the ABA’s Code of Professional Responsibility, its Canons of Professional Ethics and Standards Relating to the Prosecution and Defense Functions.

Section Philosophique, No. 39. Bruges: Desclée De Brouwer, 1955. 227 pp. 245 fr. B.--A Thomistic defense of Plato against Gilson's criticism of "essentialism." The first of the book's two sections, that dealing with "ascending" dialectic, argues that 1) Being or intelligible Form is not merely essence, but is considered as existent, 2) Plato proves the existence of a transcendent and supreme Being, and 3) the supreme Being whose existence is proven in the Republic is identical with the primary object of (...) the intellect defined in the Symposium. The second section, on "descending" dialectic, treats the problems of participation, and attempts to derive the world of becoming from the world of Forms, without, however, accepting a neo-Platonic account of emanations. An interesting, but highly controversial interpretation of Plato. --A. R. (shrink)

From an examination of Leibniz's letters and papers, the author traces the influence of Spinoza on Leibniz, and considers the criticisms which Leibniz raised against Spinoza. There is an appendix on the scholastic and renaissance antecedents of the two philosophers.--A. R.

A short study of the historical circumstances to which Marxism responded, and of the systematic character of its dialectic. The strength of Marxism the author finds to lie in its comprehensiveness, its weakness in the contradiction which arises from its espousal of humanitarian goals and its rejection of individual freedom.--A. R.

A laudable attempt to inform the student of general trends in British and American thought. There are chapters on idealism, realism, pragmatism, logical positivism and evolutionism. Though intended to promote better philosophic communication between the Continent and the "Anglo-saxons," this book will naturally be of more interest to Continentals.--A. R.

A philosophical diary, bringing together the previously published "Prelude to the Life of an Ordinary Man," "Commentary on Common Sense," and "Common Experience," with a new essay, "The Right Time."--A. R.

As an extremely technical study of Heidegger's revision of the history of ontology this work has the value of tying together, through paraphrase and quotation, the core of Heideggerian opinion on the subject, from Sein und Zeit up to his latest works. Nuño sees two grand stages in Heidegger's thought, a first and systematic stage and a second or historical stage, which represents the works coming after Kant und das Problem der Metaphysik. The author sees Heidegger's initial destruction of the (...) history of ontology arising out of its own ashes into a reconstruction of the foundations of ontology.--A. R., Jr. (shrink)

A study of the epistemological presuppositions of science, with discussions of the relation of science to mathematics, and the relative value of inductive and constructive methods. Part Two is a history of scientific method from Pythagoras to Einstein. Part Three develops a theory of the relation of science to nature, attempting to determine man's place in nature and to analyse the degree to which he is independent of nature.--A. R.

A study of post-Hegelian German historicism. There are chapters on Dilthey, Windelband, Rickert, Simmel, Weber, Spengler, Troeltsch, and Meinecke. The development of historicism as a form of Romanticism which treats history as a realization of an absolute principle, to its use as a justification for the relativity of values is traced, and its return to "the affirmation of the absolute" in the work of Troeltsch and Meinecke analyzed.--A. R.

An evaluative study of the philosophy of history as developed by Croce and Gentile. The author agrees with Nietzsche that the idealist's view of history fails, in the last analysis to account for the moral force of the individual; this failure stems from the more basic difficulty of not admitting a sufficiently radical distinction between actuality and potentiality. He suggests that if creative value is to be maintained in history, the syntheses which form history should be regarded as "open" rather (...) than "closed," and irrationality should be admitted as an historical force.--A. R. (shrink)

An attempt, by a Rosmini scholar, to develop a contemporary metaphysics capable of accounting for the spiritual crisis of our time. Beginning with the theoretical problems of "the ethics of the spirit," the author moves dialectically to the existential problems of the relation between choice and situation.--A. R.

A collection of essays on metaphysics and the philosophy of religion. Among the contributors are J. B. Lotz, J. Danielou, and R. Lazzarini.--A. R.