To give concrete meaning to the phrase "Art for Life's Sake," Jenkins assumes that "the general purpose that animates all of man's activities and artifacts is adaptation to the environment and satisfaction of the conditions of life." A phenomenological survey of human experience reveals three basic modes of viewing or adapting to the world--the affective, the cognitive, and the aesthetic. Each is intertwined with the others, and all three are necessary if man is to adapt to his environment; but as (...) one or another mode dominates experience, attention is focused on the self, the relatedness of entities, and the particular entities themselves. The view of art that emerges is a reformulation of the imitation theory; skillfully and systematically applied to the persistent facts of aesthetic life, it offers solid, common-sense illumination of traditionally obscure problems.--D. W. S. (shrink)

Beardsley's aim is "to see whether the problems [of aesthetics] cannot be formulated better than they usually are." Though he relies heavily upon the techniques of logical analysis in this study he does not make analysis the substance of inquiry, but utilizes it to render manageable the problems involved in evaluating art. Each chapter is followed by extensive "Notes and Queries" liberally sprinkled with references to books and articles bearing on the problems discussed. --D. W. S.

O’Gorman proposes a fresh interpretation of Burke by taking seriously the fact that his political thought was articulated as a series of responses to practical political problems and by examining, chronologically, the main political problems that occupied him throughout his career. A chapter is devoted to Burke’s response to each of the following problems: the validity of political parties, the nature of the British Constitution, the imperial problems of America, Ireland, and India, and the challenge of the French Revolution. While (...) granting the importance of moral and religious ideas in Burke’s political thought, O’Gorman argues, against the "new conservatives," that it is neither systematic nor a development and application of the natural law principle. And commentators "who embark upon a voyage of discovery for some ‘key notions’ or ‘fundamental concepts’ fare no better". Indeed we "should emphasize the absence of system in Burke’s political ideas and underline his characteristic lapses into inconsistency". (shrink)

The basic thesis of this unsatisfying book is that there is a fundamental dualism in Nietzsche’s philosophy between his cosmology and his philosophical anthropology. Together both perspectives supposedly constitute for Nietzsche what it means to be human. Heidegger’s and Jaspers’ interpretations run aground, therefore, because they fail to appreciate this dualism: while Heidegger emphasizes the metaphysical perspective to the detriment of the anthropological, Jaspers emphasizes the perspective of philosophical anthropology to the detriment of the metaphysical. Heidegger reads his concern with (...) fundamental ontology into Nietzsche; Jaspers, his philosophy of Existenz. (shrink)

In this study of aesthetics during the eight decades from 1755 to 1833, Will argues that those thinkers who steered away from the dualistic, neo-classical concern with ideal beauty and turned to a monistic, organic approach to the intelligibility of beauty were pushing the Platonic-Plotinian tradition toward clearer thought concerning beauty, and were also laying the groundwork for Hegel's idealism. He concludes that Hegel's systematization of this strand of thought constitutes "an oblique argument in favor of the major tradition of (...) philosophical idealism."--D. W. S. (shrink)

This is a forthright and refreshing book. It aims to bring the clarifying power of analytic philosophy to the luxuriant variety in one part of Meinong's ontology. Parson's title is meant to be read literally: it is not propositions, numbers, universals or sets, but only particular objects whose nonexistence concerns him. Parsons gives two reasons for believing that there are nonexistent objects. First, we match objects against the sets of their properties. When every existing object has been listed, we carry (...) on making sets of properties. These additional sets correlate with nonexistent objects, e.g., the golden mountain. Second, there are the many occasions when we use names or definite descriptions to characterize truly such nonexistent objects as Pegasus and Sherlock Holmes. There is, says Parsons, no satisfactory reason for rephrasing these sentences when we refuse to paraphrase sentences of the same form having existing objects as their referents. (shrink)

In 1947 Professor Dorner published The Way beyond 'Art'--The Work of Herbert Bayer. That book was one-half a series of startling generalizations dealing with the development of the visual arts, mind and nature, and one-half a series of perceptive and interesting insights into the work of the modern artist-designer, Herbert Bayer. In this posthumous, revised edition, the half dealing specifically with Bayer is omitted. What remains is Dorner's unusual history of art, which traces the dissolution of three-dimensional reality and the (...) rise of the "Modern Realism," which Dorner celebrates as "positively illustrating the physicist's new vision of the world."--D. W. S. (shrink)

Physique de Nietzsche uses Heidegger’s interpretation of Aristotle to suggest a reading of Nietzsche escaping the "circle of metaphysics". It thereby questions Heidegger’s interpretation of Nietzsche as the last metaphysician. Just as for Heidegger’s Aristotle φύσις is ὁδὸς εἰς φύσιν, so for Juranville’s Nietzsche will is will to power. The will to power must be understood not in terms of will but in terms of power. Nietzsche interprets the world physically and nontechnically as will to power, i.e., as life, energy, (...) force, power, fatum, "Physis". Will to power, the innermost essence of things, is a kind of internal principle of motion analogous to Aristotelian φύσις. (shrink)

A work in this genre inevitably invites comparison with the 1953 anthology of Vivas and Krieger. Though containing some duplication of the contents of the earlier volume, Weitz's collection makes many additional, fine selections available--e. g., three examples of Erwin Panofsky's techniques; Hospers' "The Concept of Artistic Expression"; Malraux on style; Chapter IX of Cassirer's Essay on Man; and a direct encounter in which Erich Kahler has prepared a traditional, humanistic rebuttal to Weitz's own contention that 'art' cannot be defined. (...) A good anthology.--D. W. S. (shrink)

About each of six men, W. R. Inge, P. E. More, A. E. Taylor, William Temple, and G. Santayana, the author asks two questions: How does he interpret Plato and/or the Platonic tradition? What are the central elements in his religious thought? Geoghegan's general conclusion: though agreeing in their ethical Theism, moral idealism, ambivalent view of Nature, and reliance upon God to relate essence and existence, Platonism and Christianity have not been united ; with Whitehead and Santayana, naturalism has precluded (...) an adequate expression of either original or traditional Platonism.--D. W. S. (shrink)

All the authors represented in this "source book to serve independent study on the part of scholars and fairly advanced students in philosophy of art" share Miss Langer's predilection for two basic concepts: "expressiveness" and "semblance," which "defines the work of art as a wholly created appearance, the Art Symbol." Thus while it would not serve as a survey text, nevertheless presents many provocative essays which have not been available in English or in other easily obtainable collections.--D. W. S.

This is a book with a highly unorthodox, idiosyncratic thesis, but because of the author's deep familiarity with the Whiteheadian materials, because of the power given to her analysis by its all-encompassing scope, because of the genuinely important issues which cluster around her theme, and also, undoubtedly, because of the unabashed bravado with which this Don Quixote of the process set breaks lances with virtually all of the established authors in the field, this book will probably be widely read.

Spragens, who understands the political theorist to be "one who examines the implications for political order of a pattern of order which contains but transcends the realm of politics", investigates the structuring impact that the Galilean science had on Hobbes’ politics. Hobbes, of course, thought he had made a radical break with Aristotelian cosmology. Spragens, however, tries to show in what way Hobbes did not succeed in breaking with Aristotelian orthodoxy. Others, of course, have recognized the influence of Aristotle on (...) Hobbes in this or that part of his thought. What is original about Spragens’ work is that he systematically explores the connection between Aristotelian and Hobbesian cosmology. (shrink)

In 1947 Professor Dorner published The Way beyond 'Art'--The Work of Herbert Bayer. That book was one-half a series of startling generalizations dealing with the development of the visual arts, mind and nature, and one-half a series of perceptive and interesting insights into the work of the modern artist-designer, Herbert Bayer. In this posthumous, revised edition, the half dealing specifically with Bayer is omitted. What remains is Dorner's unusual history of art, which traces the dissolution of three-dimensional reality and the (...) rise of the "Modern Realism," which Dorner celebrates as "positively illustrating the physicist's new vision of the world."--D. W. S. (shrink)

Leclerc's systematic introduction is predicated upon the thesis that "Whitehead's basic problems belong to the great tradition of philosophical inquiry first opened up by the Greeks." A lucid discussion of the traditional problems surrounding "being" leads simply and logically to a consideration of the categories in terms of which Whitehead reformulates the traditional approach to "that which is." The great merit of this progression is that it dispels the illusion, so overwhelming on an initial glance at Whitehead himself, that his (...) terminology is arbitrary and completely disassociated from traditional usage.--D. W. S. (shrink)

Whitehead's remarks on man, social problems, education, religion, and history have been extracted from his technical works and placed side by side to form an account in familiar terminology of Whitehead's theory of civilization. In context, occurring almost as afterthoughts illustrating abstract metaphysical principles, these remarks constitute brilliant flashes of humanistic insight; abstracted from context, they become platitudinous. Only when, in the final chapter, Johnson adumbrates their metaphysical setting, does one feel any of the excitement of seeing the values of (...) Western democracy emerge from a speculative account of the nature of things. --D. W. S. (shrink)

This volume follows by eighteen years Mays's earlier study, which was titled simply The Philosophy of Whitehead. The strongly stated, controversial working hypothesis behind that work was that even though Whitehead introduces a fiercely complicated vocabulary in his later books, especially in Process and Reality, "the ideas contained in his later work are much simpler than is usually assumed, since he is working out some of his earlier ideas on a larger philosophical canvas". In short, the 1959 book by Mays (...) was based upon a sharp denial that Process and Reality involves "a radical departure from [Whitehead's] early writings". (shrink)