INTRODUCTION Philosophy is a discipline of fundamental diversities and extremely divergent modes of thought some of which occupy center stage in Western ...

The American University Publications In From its inception Philosophy has continued the direction stated in the sub-title of the initial volume that of probing new directions in philosophy. As the series has developed these probings of new directions have taken the two fold direction of exploring the relationships between the disparate traditions of twentieth century philosophy and with developing new insights into the foundations of some enduring philosophic problems. This present volume continues both of these directions. The interaction between twentieth-century (...) Anglo-Saxon and Continental philosophy which was an implicit theme of our first and third volumes and the explicit subject of our second volume is here continued in a series of studies on major figures and topics in each tradition. In the context of these interpretative studies, Professor Durfee returns again and again to the question of the relationships between the will and the reason, and explores the conflicting goals of creativity and objectivity in formulating a philosophic position. In so doing he raises the issue as his title suggests - of the foundations of philosophy itself. He seriously challenges the belief common to both pheomenology and analytic philosophy that philosophizing can be a presuppositionless activity, objectively persued independent of the personal (and, perhaps, arbitrary) commitments of the philosopher. This issue, critical as it is to all forms of philosophy, is surely a worthy one for a series such as ours. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:408 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY The Fellowship of Being. By John B. O'Malley. (The Hague: Martinus Niihoff, 1966. Pp. xii + 140. $5.60) This book is a study of the concept of person in the philosophy of Gabriel Marcel. It is the revision of a doctoral thesis, completed at the University of London, under the direction of A. J. Ayer. This fact, in addition to the intrinsic interest of the (...) subject, gives the volume special interest, for it is one of an increasing number of essays establishing dialogue between British analytic interests and continental phenomenology. John B. O'Malley is well aware of current analytic concerns and frequently notes the relevance of Marcel's analysis to these issues. It is even argued that Marcel anticipated numerous concerns which became central in analytic philosophy includingproblems of language. O'Malley proposes that the person is the central and guiding concept in Marcel's philosophy and that his analysis of this phenomenon allows him to escape Idealism and ghost theories, and to reconcile the moral and the metaphysical viewpoints. It is to the person that bodily or mental predicates are applied. Consequently this concept is fundamental to the analysis of body-mind problems. It is this reality which offers the nonlinguisticreferent to which such predication may apply. An adequate analysis of person must not abstract from its subject matter but rather must include the person in "an act of reflective withdrawal." This is central in Marcers methodology, and thus the epistemology of the person is neither "acquaintance with" nor "knowledge about." The neglect of such involvement results in either extreme objectivism or extreme subjectivism, either of which misses the person. Objectivism replaces the personal with successive states and qualities. Subjectivism results in either solipsism or in a division between an absolute and a particular ego, and thus both lose the concrete and incarnate person. The embodied person is the center of my relationships and thus even ontological analysis must be directed toward it. The analysis cannot be merely problematic but needs to be meta-problematic. The person offers such meta-problematic analysis a meeting point of Being, Truth, and Value, thus overcoming the dichotomy between the moral and the metaphysical and between the normative and the descriptive. Unfortunately the essay could have used a further proof reading for it is marred by numerous printing errors. Although it is somewhat ponderous in style, it is a very carefully argued analysis of what is central to Marcel. To have such a discussion sympathetic to Marcel's perspective and yet written by one quite conscious of British philosophical concerns affords significant insight for the reader into a new stage of contemporary philosophy which is undoubtedly to center upon such conversation across the English channel. HAROLDA. D ~ American University Menschliche Existenz und moderne Welt. Ein internationales Symposion zum Selbstverst~indnis des heutigen Menschen. Hrsg. Richard Schwarz. (Berlin, 1967. Two vols., S. 810 and 885) In der "Einfiihrung" umreisst der tterauageber den Titel des Werkes. Es soil nach dem Selbstverst~indnis des Menschen gefragt werden, das heiflt, worin sieht der heutige Mensch die besondere Eigenheit seines Menschseins, sein "Epochalbewul~tsoin" (Litt). Gibt es gewisse Grundbefindliehkeiten,die MienMensehen gemeinsamsind? Kann noch yon einer gemeinsamen Wertwelt gesproehen werden? Sind dieses nicht infolge einer inneren Bedrohung nur fiberholte Gedanken? Das Werk soll die Antwort geben. Es ist nicht mSglich, alle in dem Buch aufgenommene Aufs~tze zu behandeln, mSgen sic auch gewinnreiche Beitr~ige sein. Datum muff eine gewisse Auswabl getroffen werden. Zu Beginn des Werkes spricht der leider verstorbene Eduard Spranger fiber den "Humanit ~tsgedanken", den er unter dem dreifachen Aspekt der Humanit~t als Bildung, als ethischpolitischen Begriff und als religiSs-ethischen Begriff wiedergibt. Bildung ist nicht blofl Tradi- BOOK REVIEWS 409 tion, sondern immer neue lebendige Durehdringung, Gelstesformung, nicht nur Grammatik. Humanitat fordert ethisch-politische Freiheit als Voranssetzung der Personentfaltung, ist darum mehr als blofie Nfitzlichkeit und verlangt Anerkennung des Lebensreehts anderer V61ker. Nach Spranger gibt es einen religiSs-ehristlichen Humanismus im Gegensatz zur "Theologie der Krisis". Er steht in Verbindung mit dem Weltsein, verleiht ihm den letzten transzendenten Bezug und fordert "echte Toleranz". Alfred yon Martin-M~nehen erSrtert dann in "Humanitgt als Problem tier Gegenwart" angesichts... (shrink)

The potentiality and power of human rationality is the hallmark of Greek philosophy, whether Platonic or Aristotelian. Renaissance and Enlightenment philosophers developed the logos of rationality as a central feature of modern culture, either in the form of mathematical rationalism or experiential reasoning, with appropriate debate between these diverse modes. A self-conscious culmination of the logos of reason was the elaboration of German Idealism complemented by Anglo-Saxon representatives, which idealism came under severe attack in the twentieth century from both positivistic (...) or analytic philosophers as well as from phenomenological and existential thinkers. Within this latter community and specifically in the arena of philosophy of religion, a most serious attack was launched upon European idealism and classical rationalism, which attack is the focus of this essay. (shrink)

This is one of the most interesting and challenging studies of Sartre to appear in recent years. It is much more than a preface, and is far from the introductory level study which the title might suggest; but is, rather, a critical analysis of Sartrean philosophy from the perspective of structuralist or post-structuralist French philosophy. Thus the book presents, in principle, a Derridian look at Sartrean thought, or a deconstructionist interpretation of Sartre, and thereby exactly the type of interpretation which (...) has been badly needed. It is written by an intellectual historian well aware of contemporary theoretical debate and its import for literary criticism, textual interpretation, and aesthetic theory. (shrink)

This excellent and recent study of Kierkegaard is presented by an assistant for Christian philosophy at Salzburg who is concerned with foundational problems of metaphysics. It was originally presented as a dissertation at the Gregorian University of Rome, and exhibits the usual depth and thoroughness of German philosophical scholarship.

Both of these fine volumes are concerned with Emmanuel Levinas. The 1986 volume is a quite complete bibliography of Levinas, including not only his writings, but books and articles about him, and even including references to him in other books and articles. It is the most complete bibliography of Levinas available.

In an earlier day we received from Smith a fine study of comparative religions. Now we are offered a thoughtful meditation containing his mature reflections and conclusions from an intense study of religions and philosophies of both the East and the West. One recognizes that this is a major philosophical statement from the author, while also rather unique on the current philosophical scene, although quite in continuity with what he understands as the core of world philosophy. Smith isolates the center (...) of a tradition to which a wide variety of cultural affirmations have pointed, and this unity of intent, this "invisible geometry," this "primordial tradition," signifies the most fundamental features of reality. Consequently, this volume is an extended essay in a new or reaffirmed natural theology, even after a day in which many had supposed that theology in general and natural theology in particular had not only died but had been buried. (shrink)

This is a collection of essays all of which have been previously published in Europe. The author was a research assistant to Husserl for a number of years, and consequently comments upon the phenomenological movement with considerable authority. More recently he has served as a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cologne. He has been closely associated with the Husserl Archives at both Cologne and Louvain, and has served as editor of some of Husserl's posthumous publications. He has also (...) taught and lectured in the United States, where he has become increasingly known since the publication of his Major Problems In Contemporary European Philosophy, as well as a number of very useful articles. (shrink)

This unique volume is a translation of a Danish book originally published in 1976. It is not written out of great sympathy for Kierkegaard's position, but out of an intense determination for accurate historical scholarship. The author claims as his inspiration Paul V. Rubow, and writes from a modern historic point of view which he identifies as "neopositivistic." The proclaimed thesis of the book is that Kierkegaard scholarship "went down the wrong track" from the very beginning, and that much of (...) this mistake is due to Kierkegaard himself. Kierkegaard scholars have misinterpreted the literature, especially the letters and papers, and have taken as factual much of what was really "creative fiction.". (shrink)

This very unique, useful, and original book is a study of the relationships between mathematics and Christian theology, written by a professor trained in both disciplines. At least since the Pythagoreans, and extending from Plato to Whitehead, Husserl, and Wittgenstein, there has developed an intimacy between mathematics and the universal logos, as well as mathematics and God, which Henry explores in considerable depth. The development of Euclidean mathematics not only seriously influenced the elaborations of Greek philosophy, but when this encountered (...) Hebrew-Christian thought and theology there was extensive impact on religious categories of God, Word, Objectivity, and universal unity. The Greek theory of reason was heavily influenced by the Greek understanding of mathematics. Consequently, the mathematical aspects of the classical meeting of Athens and Jerusalem, which have been seriously neglected, were central to the interpretation of the faith-reason controversy. That is, however, but the beginning of the story. The development of mathematical thought until the present has exerted and continues to exert serious influence on philosophical and theological interpretation, and the import of that dialectic is the burden of Henry's treatise. (shrink)

This volume contains the major papers presented at the Second International Conference of the International Society For Metaphysics held at Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan, West Bengal, India. The Society was conceived at the 14th International Congress of Philosophy meeting in Vienna in 1968, sponsored by leading members of the Metaphysical Society Of America, and was initiated at the International Congress of Philosophy held at Varna, Bulgaria in 1973. This is the first volume of their proceedings to be published. Subsequent volumes are (...) in preparation presenting the meetings in New York, also in 1976, and in Jerusalem in 1977. The theme of the Calcutta meeting in India was "Man And Nature," reflecting the renewed import of discussions of nature evident in the twentieth century, including the limits and possibilities it may offer for human personality. The depth and variety of the metaphysical analysis is too complex for serious comment in this brief space. The pluralism, geographical diversity and range of the conference is most evident from the contents of this volume: Part I, Science And Nature, includes papers by E. Agazzi, A. Mercier, and E. E. Harris. Part II, Progress and Nature, includes papers by M. Chatterjee, J. E. Smith, J. Kuszynski, A. N. Woznicki, and S. Chakravarti. Part III, Person And Nature, includes papers by K. Bhattacharya, S. C. Thakur, C. Chung-yuan, and T. A. Fay. Part IV, Transcendence And Nature, includes papers by M. Abe, K. K. Banerjee, T. M. P. Mahadevan, W. N. Clarke, E. Deutsch, and B. Bhattacharya. The essays offer considerations of animism, aesthetics, buddhism, causality, existentialism, Marxism, pragmatism, Tao, and conclude with a tribute to R. Tagore. It is most appropriate that in this journal congratulations be offered to the International Society For Metaphysics for the success of its early endeavors, and for this initial contribution to international discussion as evidence of the vitality of metaphysical reflection.--Harold A. Durfee, American University. (shrink)