In this paper we study the relations between the fragment L of classical logic having just conjunction and disjunction and the variety D of distributive lattices, within the context of Algebraic Logic. We prove that these relations cannot be fully expressed either with the tools of Blok and Pigozzi's theory of algebraizable logics or with the use of reduced matrices for L. However, these relations can be naturally formulated when we introduce a new notion of model of a sequent calculus. (...) When applied to a certain natural calculus for L, the resulting models are equivalent to a class of abstract logics (in the sense of Brown and Suszko) which we call distributive. Among other results, we prove that D is exactly the class of the algebraic reducts of the reduced models of L, that there is an embedding of the theories of L into the theories of the equational consequence (in the sense of Blok and Pigozzi) relative to D, and that for any algebra A of type (2,2) there is an isomorphism between the D-congruences of A and the models of L over A. In the second part of this paper (which will be published separately) we will also apply some results to give proofs with a logical flavour for several new or well-known lattice-theoretical properties. (shrink)

Student nurses are confronted by many ethical challenges in clinical practice. The aim of the study was to explore Malawian students’ experiences of ethical problems during their clinical placement. A phenomenological hermeneutic design comprising interviews and qualitative content analysis was used. Ten students were interviewed. Three main themes emerged: 1) Conflict between patient rights and the guardians’ presence in the hospital; 2) Conflict between violation of professional values and patient rights caused by unethical behaviour; and 3) Conflict between moral awareness (...) and the ideal course of action. The students had difficulties ensuring patient rights and acting in accordance with western norms and values which are not always appropriate in the Malawian context. The students require role models who demonstrate professional attitudes towards patients’ rights and values. There is a need to create pedagogical strategies in which a caring attitude and ethical reflection can be learned and cultivated in clinical practice. (shrink)

It was bound to happen that Hegel's thought, like that of so many other great philosophers, would be studied from the viewpoint of the question of language. The title is innocent and modest and it seems to promise a monograph on a particular topic. Instead, however, we are led through a number of major Hegelian themes, taken from the totality of his opus. There are chapters on transcendence and infiniteness, on praxis, on the figures of self-consciousness, on religion and the (...) state, and finally on language and system and language and thought. And there is, underlying the whole work, an apparent preoccupation to "situate" Hegel with regard to other great thinkers of modern times: Kant, Marx, Kierkegaard and Heidegger.--M. J. V. (shrink)

Another volume in a rich list of publications in the history of philosophy by the University of Urbino. Although the present book is an unpretentious commentary on Schelling's Philosophy of Art, making use of a few more of his texts related to aesthetics, still it is a welcome sign of the renewal of interest in the early Schelling after three decades of research oriented almost exclusively to his middle and late periods. After a rather comprehensive treatment of the role of (...) the philosophy of art within philosophy as such, of the evolution of Schelling's aesthetics and of the relationship between beauty and truth, the author offers us his interpretation of the Philosophy of Art as a "Goethean system." An interesting appendix consists of the German text and the Italian translation of the few poems we know from Schelling.—M. J. V. (shrink)

Author of a short study on Franz von Baader Klaus, Hemmerle presents us now with a longer study on the last philosophy of Schelling. The book sets out to be an exercise in Mitdenken. Instead of accumulating footnotes and going through the usual painstaking ways of a scholarly exegesis of texts, Hemmerle tries to think with Schelling, along the lines of Schelling's thought; and he does this a rather original way. Motivated by a genuine enthusiasm for Schelling, Hemmerle paraphrases and (...) comments on the difficult notions of the so-often enigmatic Spätphilosophie in a freely flowing, dynamic and truly suggestive language. He manages to keep the abstractions fascinating and the difficult arguments attractive. Yet in his admiration for his chosen author he becomes somewhat less than critical, expounding the most questionable constructs of the old Schelling as self-evident products of human thinking; and he does all this without any attempt at situating the teacher of the negative and positive philosophies in the general framework of the history of philosophy--or even in that of his own previous systems. The central theme of the book is God, the God to whom philosophy cannot reach out by itself but who descends to the philosophical thinking. How this God still remains a God for philosophy is the central problem of the late Schelling. Visibly inspired by the provocative studies of W. Schulz yet displaying a real originality, this book seems to us a rather unusual contribution to the growing literature on the late Schelling.--M. J. V. (shrink)

Hamann is one of the greatest religious writers of the eighteenth century in Germany. He is the person whom Schelling, Hegel, and Kierkegaard admired, read, and quoted. This book treats the major themes and insights of Hamann. Texts of Hamann are represented by a large number of quotations. Hamann never wrote a systematic treatise; he wrote short, devastating, illuminating essays and criticisms, as well as letters. Especially interesting are the chapters dealing with Hamann's criticism of contemporary philosophy, and his views (...) concerning the relation of philosophy and faith. This is a fine study which helps the reader to gain some orientation and perspective on Hamann's subtle and obscure writings.--M. J. V. (shrink)

This is a complicated and ingenious study of one of the famous friendships of German intellectual history. Miss Knoll's aim is not so much to analyze philosophical ideas as to find the major structural elements of this highly emotional literary friendship between Hamann and Jacobi. The book begins with a short review of Hegel's and Dilthey's treatment of the "subject," Hamann-Jacobi. The author objects to these treatments which, like practically all other students of the question viewed the letters from an (...) exclusively philosophical and speculative viewpoint, and never tackled the deeply personal structure of this metaphysical-religious correspondence. This is exactly what the present author attempts to do. The analysis of Hamann's highly complex reactions to Jacobi's famous book on Lessing's Spinozism reveals to us how strongly and on how many levels the "magician of the North" criticized Jacobi—and through him any attempt to combat the Enlightenment which does not reject it in integro. On the other hand Hamann continuously sent his manuscripts to Jacobi to be read and criticized, and, in this way, he sought to help the latter to grow by making him contribute to works of a dimension and depth completely alien to his own thought But the destiny of Hamann was to be misunderstood by Jacobi, and this misunderstanding was recognized and corrected only by Schelling. Though H. Fuhrmans has already forcefully pointed out what Schelling owed to Hamann, the present book is the first to do justice to Schelling's Hamann-interpretation, until now entirely overshadowed by that of Hegel.—M. J. V. (shrink)

Friedrich Schlegel is known above all as a man of letters and political interests, while his philosophical opus has received as yet a very limited interest and attention. Perhaps this new critical edition will enable him to carve a small niche for himself in forthcoming histories of philosophy. He was certainly not the most significant thinker; but his imagination, many-sidedness, sharpness, and his unmistakable speculative gift qualify him to be in the second rank of Romantic philosophers immediately after Schelling and (...) Baader. The young Friedrich Schlegel was thoroughly under the spell of Fichte, but his later development—notwithstanding personal antipathy—carried him close to Schelling. The ethical pathos of Fichte's doctrine could not make Schlegel overlook the injustice done to nature, art, and religion. Though his celebrated conversion to Catholicism in the Dom of Cologne did not take place until 1838, Schlegel read Jacob Boehme and was a close friend of Schleiermacher, and thus was absorbed by religious problems years before. Already in his Cologne lectures he goes beyond the vague idealistic concept of the "divinity" in favor of a personal and transcendent God. These two volumes of the critical edition contain the following texts: Transzendentalphilosophie, lectures in Jena from 1800-1801. The text is the one published by J. Körner in 1935. The Development of Philosophy in Twelve Books and Propedeutic and Logic. The texts in Propedeutic and Logic are of a general introductory character. But in The Development of Philosophy a tremendous effort is made to give, if not an entirely systematic, at least a quasi-all-embracing, encyclopedic sketch of philosophy and its history. Here again we read nothing substantially new. The editor follows the text published by Windischmann in 1836 but does complete it with variants from other manuscripts. Métaphysique. These lectures were delivered in French to Madame de Staël. In addition to an already known text published by J. Körner the editor makes use of a manuscript in the hand of Schlegel which was found only after the last war. The preface of J.-J. Anstett is ascetically short and even the commentary consists only of sober and learned notes at the end of the second volume.—M. J. V. (shrink)

One of the movements sharply critical of the Enlightenment was illuminism. Weishaupt, Saint-Martin, Eckertshausen are little more than names today yet in their time they contributed to the birth of a new and rich intellectual world, that of Romanticism. Through the life of a well-to-do citizen of Berne, Kirchberger, we see the fortunes of the illuminists, their hopes, their doubts, their ultimately marginal destiny. The book begins with a careful historical account of the papers of Kirchberger followed by a description (...) of his life. Later on we are introduced into a more speculative world: that of the post-Boehmean speculation on the Divine Sophia. The speculative mysticism of these times was an offspring of heterodox theological speculation and condemned quietistic spirituality. Kirchberger, with his rich and diverse correspondence, is an interesting witness of this movement.--M. J. V. (shrink)

There is a quasi-consensus in philosophical circles that Kant had no philosophy of history, and in this respect was one with the Aufklärung. The author's aim is to refute this thesis. He tries to show that the Aufklärung was not unhistorical, but simply considered itself the culmination of all history, and thus was unable and unwilling to see that past centuries might have had autonomous values and goals, or, as Ranke said, that "all periods are immediately towards God." For the (...) Aufklärung, and for that matter for Kant, the past's only role was to be a necessary preparation for the present. However, as Weyand points out, for Kant the present period too is only a step forward since the development of history is unlimited. Another significant point of divergence is the role Kant assigns to the inborn evil in human nature and, following this, to the antagonism between men. In his eyes not reason but "antagonism" rooted in our dark egoistic passions is the major drive in historical progression. All this is explained through a three-fold temporal division of Kant's thought: works written before the Ideas of a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Viewpoint; from this last book up to the Critique of Judgment; from the third Critique to the Opus Posthumus. Throughout the book Weyand attempts to show that Kant did have a coherent philosophy of history. But despite the painstaking efforts to study every utterance of Kant on the subject, most readers can't help but be struck by the meagerness of what the Great One of Königsberg had to say about history and historicity.—M. J. V. (shrink)

This Festschrift is one of the best we have been offered during the last decade. German, French, Turkish, Italian, South African, and Austrian scholars have written 23 essays in honor of one of the foremost historians of philosophy in this century, H. Heimsoeth. Half of the book is devoted to Kantian-scholarship; especially impressive are: Guéroult's study on the structure of the second analogy of experience, Belaval's comparison between Kant and Leibniz, and the richly documented long investigation by G. Tonelli on (...) the presuppositions of Kant's table of judgments in the logic of the eighteenth century. The second part of the present volume is more heterogeneous than the first. One reads with genuine enthusiasm H. Fuhrmans' "The God-World relationship in Schelling's late philosophy." L. Landgrebe's article on the philosophical problem of the end of history is grounded in Kantian soil, but other essays are little connected to Heimsoeth's major interests. These essays include: E. Lichtenstein on the philosophical development of the concept of culture from Meister Eckhart to Hegel; F. Nicolin on the systematic situation of the history of pedagogy since Herbart and Schleiermacher; and H. Wagner's paper on Plato and the beginning of metaphysics as a science. The book concludes with a rich bibliography of Heimsoeth's publications since 1911.--M. J. V. (shrink)

The present book is a reprint of the great Danish historian's fundamental study. Though the immense œuvre of Grönbech spreads over a wide variety of fields—mystics of India and Europe, Blake, Goethe, Dostoyevski, Jesus and the first Christian community, Greek religion and culture, and the philosophy of language—the two volumes of the culture and religion of the Germans belong to his most important achievements. The first part treats the great "ideas" of the early Germans: peace, honor, the soul, death, and (...) immortality. The second part is devoted to the institutions which have normative value in all societies and especially in archaic ones: war, the temple, the feast, the sacrifice, the play, etc. Grönbech attempts a total synthesis which goes beyond the temporal and tribal differences of this culture, which spread from Byzantium to Greenland. The whole work is organized around the Icelandic saga, perhaps the greatest gift the early Germans gave the world. At the end the assiduous reader is rewarded by a long and fascinating "excursus" on the cultic drama.—M. J. V. (shrink)

This is an articulate and intelligent book on the greatest German thinker of the period between Leibniz and Kant. Lessing's position had been a rather complex one. Irritated by the flatness of the Aufklärung and its deism yet opposed to the historical claims of Christianity, he attempted to elaborate a philosophy of history in which the tenets of historical religion would receive their just appreciation. The author of the present book is extremely well versed in the philosophical and theological context (...) of Lessing's thought and it is only after a most valuable first part on "Historical Background" that he initiates us into Lessing's thought proper. Attacks on Lessing, especially after the publication of Reimarus' writings, were frequent and we are given our share of some of the best or at least most interesting criticisms raised against Lessing. At the end of the book there is a particularly fine chapter on the Leibnizean roots of his philosophy of religion.--M. J. V. (shrink)

The emphasis is on extensive textual analysis, concentrated mainly on the Nicomachean Ethics, but making a very generous use of all other writings of the Stagirite. After a long and interesting introduction on Aristotle's method in ethical investigations and on the evolution of his moral philosophy, comes a comprehensive treatment of his theory of happiness: happiness in general, happiness as virtue, happiness and the moral order, the realization of happiness in the practice of wisdom. If the book has a general (...) thesis, it is a kind of apology for Aristotelian ethics as a morality of activity and dynamism which, instead of only aiming at "the formal perfection" of the virtuous man of Plato, opens the way to a theological culmination, to a truly transcendent moral end. Despite an over-abundance of frequently unnecessary quotes from secondary sources, this very scholarly book is a valuable instrument for the systematic reading of the Philosopher from an ethical perspective.—M. J. V. (shrink)

Castelli has again managed to bring together in Rome some of the greatest specialists of mythology, biblical exegesis, of the different branches of linguistics, with a generous sprinkling of philosophers, theologians, and historians. From the very large number of contributions, especially important are E. Benveniste: Blasphemy and euphemy; K. Kerényi: The language of theology and the theology of language; D. McKinnon: The problem of "the system of projection" in reference to the Christian theological affirmations; R. Panikkar: Silence and word, The (...) smile of the Buddha; B. Bäumer: The secret name in Hinduism; E. Levinas: The name of God after some rabbinical texts; S. Cotta: The name of God in juridical language; P. Ric£ur: Paternity: from the phantasm to the symbol; A. de Waelhens: Paternity and the Oedipus-complex in psychoanalysis; S. Breton: Religious language, theological language; J. Brun: The pseudonyms of God; H. Bouillard: The name of God in the Credo; G. Vahanian: Writing and history; I. Manchini: A nonreligious interpretation of God; X. Tilliette: Attempt at a transition from the God of the philosophers to the God of the Christians; M. Olivetti: The beginnings of Jacobi's philosophy of language.--M. J. V. (shrink)

After the monumental works of Xavier Leon and Martial Guéroult, the French have again produced a significant piece of Fichte-interpretation. The author advances two radically new theses: Fichte's philosophy is above all centered around the deduction of the other, and even objectivity as such is based upon inter-subjectivity. The Doctrine of Science, instead of being the foundation of an absolute idealism, teaches that the only knowledge which can be had is empirical knowledge, and all logic is rooted in time. Philonenko (...) claims that Fichte's aim was to uphold the adequacy and essential correctness of common everyday knowledge over against the pretensions of metaphysical speculation. This is a magnificent book: the product of a truly amazing scholarship in the history of philosophy, full of ingenious and highly imaginative rapprochements and insights. It is also another welcome manifestation of that recent continental trend in the interpretation of German idealism which realizes that Fichte and Schelling do not simply fill the gap between Kant and Hegel, but are great philosophers in their own right. If any objection can be made at all against the work, it would be the limitation of its argument to the first period of Fichte's creativity. The author's avowed aim is to confine himself to the Grundlage der gesammten Wissenschaftslehre, and, as a matter of fact, we rarely find a quote later than 1798. Indeed, Fichte always claimed that no qualitative change took place in his thought. However, his exposition of it steadily altered, and in view of this, perhaps it is not entirely unjustified to regret that the Wissenschaftslehre of 1804 and the Answeisung zum seligen Leben are not taken into account in interpreting the early Fichte.—M. J. V. (shrink)

Professor Jankélévitch is one of the very few contemporary moral philosophers without any avowed extra-ethical affiliation. Written in the best tradition of classical French moral thought, penetrated by Neo-Platonic and Christian mysticism, the Russian novel, and French poetry, the present book is Jankélévitch's eleventh work devoted to ethical problems. It describes and analyzes, in a brilliantly rhetorical style, remorse and regret, compensation and consolation, and repentance and sanction, chiefly in the framework of the temporality of "bad conscience." The last section, (...) a highly spirited and interesting apology for the moral efficacy and healing power of the "bad conscience," is intended to be the culmination of the book, yet its most significant philosophical contribution might very well be the thesis that moral conscience and reflective conscience are phenomena different not in degree but in kind.—M. J. V. (shrink)

This is a long-awaited reprint of the major work of the late Alexandre Koyré, one of the greatest masterpieces of the history of Western philosophy. The early nineteenth century saw a revival of Boehme studies but even the commentaries of Franz von Baader could not be substituted for a scholarly synthesis of Boehme's thought. Boehme is a universe of his own, and only the immense learning of a man like Koyré, with his rare ability to synthesize and clarify, could have (...) done justice to him. Through and beyond the rich and baroque splendor of the cosmic poetry of the Dawn of the Mysterium Magnum, we see the birth of the modern philosophical spirit. What Boehme offers us is a philosophy of freedom, and, despite the modesty of his comparisons, Koyré does not fail to show how all this anticipates the greatest Idealistic systems.--M. J. V. (shrink)

Mérleg is an interesting quarterly selection of articles of general interest translated from the major Western languages into Hungarian. It is a Catholic publication for a general intellectual public and it contains besides the longer studies review articles, reviews, interviews and also short summaries. The most important articles of the two issues we are reviewing: A. Greeley, "The Sacred and the Psychedelic"; A. Plé, "The affective life of the consecrated celibate"; K. Franke, "Apology for the protection of the unborn life"; (...) "Basic issues of the Abortion Problem"; "Catechesis according to the Council"; R. Schnackenburg, "The birth of Christ without legends and Myths"; P. Caspers, "The role of the Church in Asia"; C. Aguiar, "Latin-American Catholicism"; "The Memory of Mauriac." The very difficulty of publishing in Hungarian a theologically orientated digest makes this selection dramatically sparing and it seems to give us a more coherent and more essential view of the "happenings" of the West than many of the reviews of America, France or Germany.--M. J. V. (shrink)

A highly interesting collection of lectures on the central themes of contemporary philosophy and theology in the European tradition. Out of twenty-seven fascinating titles a few especially interesting ones are: Heinrich Ott, "The Structure of the Act of Faith," Karl Kerényi, "The Myth of Faith," Antoine Vergote, "Myth, Belief, and Theological Faith," Henri Bouillard, "To Believe and to Understand," Geo Widengren, "Myth and Faith in the Light of Religious Phenomenology," Giulio Girardi, "Demythisation and Atheism," René Marlé, "Is the Christian Faith (...) a Religion?" Huguette Fugier, "Time and the Sacred in the Religious Vocabulary of the Romans," Renato Lazzarini, "Myth and Faith in Eschatological Perspective." All the lectures and the discussions centered around them are in French.—M. J. V. (shrink)

It becomes increasingly difficult to keep up with studies of Schelling, or more generally of the history of German Idealism, without being conversant with the rapidly growing Italian literature in this field. This book appears twenty-five years after that of Horst Furrmans, and ten years after that of Walter Schulz—the two major studies to date of Schelling's later philosophy. Although Bausola's study does not display the depth and extent of scholarly penetration to be found in Furrmans or Schulz, neither does (...) it display their pretention. It does not claim to be the ultimate interpretation. Its avowed aim is to treat one major theme in the later Schelling: that of relationship between metaphysics and revelation. Yet it also points to a rather novel interpretation, or at least a sketch, of the relationship of the middle Schelling to the writings preceding the Bruno. For the non-specialist, this book is a valuable introduction, offering a clear and well written account of the great themes of Schelling's late philosophy. Included is a competent review of the relevant secondary sources and a bibliographical notice of publications after 1953, the closing date of Schneeberger's standard Schelling bibliography.—M. J. V. (shrink)

This is the first really comprehensive treatment to appear in modern times of the great Alexandrian theologian's life and doctrine. Like his better known contemporaries, Fr. Chr. Baur, J. Müller, and Dorner, Redepenning also united the great heritage of intense speculative interest with the full armor of nineteenth century historical scholarship. In spite of his many footnotes he has a clear and rich style, focusing on major theological and historical questions. He has sense enough to leave some highly specialized issues (...) to a number of appendices. The first volume is devoted to Origen's early doctrines in their historical context. The second volume has two major sections: one deals in the fashion of the first volume with the development of Origen's later doctrines. The other treats in a systematic manner the whole of Origen's doctrines in terms of God, the fallen world, and the redemption. These are the most important chapters of the book but they must be read as Redepenning intended: only after the historical sections. This beautifully printed book is an indispensable instrument to any further study of the history of Patristic thought.--M. J. V. (shrink)

The present book is an interesting essay on Origen's place in the history of Western thought, or better, about the question whether he was a philosopher at all, and if so, in what sense. Because of his intense speculative drive and his wide learning in Neoplatonic thought Origen has been considered to be the "most philosophical" of the Greek Fathers. Such a view very often entails the attempt at "reorganizing" his thought as systematic philosophical reflection. The author's final thesis is (...) that such an approach is doomed to failure in really understanding the Origenian mind. This "pupil" of Ammonius Saccas was above all a Christian theologian and as such an outsider to philosophy. Philosophy had not been taken for granted by him but it was to be probed into from the depth of Christian experience and its theological self-interpretation. Philosophy itself-which means to his mind pagan philosophy—should be treated within the framework of that vast theological enterprise Origen had been carrying through in his whole life. It is only after the analysis of his philosophy of theology that Origen's contribution to philosophy proper can be evaluated. It is in this sense that the author considers his work as a prolegomenon to "Origenian philosophy."—M. J. V. (shrink)

This book is a rather mediocre and unimaginative summary of the major themes of Avicenna's metaphysics. Chahine makes the attempt to situate him against the background of antique and medieval philosophy, but the ideas themselves are never given a contextual treatment. One does not see what was truly original and significant in Avicenna's philosophy; one is left frustrated by the succession of scholastic lieux communs and only seldom gratified by a beautiful quote. There is a certain amount of information on (...) the ideas of other Islamic thinkers influencing Avicenna or influenced by him, but this cannot compensate for the lack of a really penetrating analysis—M. J. V. (shrink)

This is certainly one of the most beautiful books in philosophy published in the last couple of years. It comprises eighty-four essays, carefully selected, well-translated, covering almost the full range of Croce's immense literary production. Croce is certainly one of the most important and influential thinkers of this century and in this huge anthology the English-speaking reader is given an incomparable instrument to get acquainted with him. The list of the headings which classify the eighty-four essays are: The Logic of (...) Philosophy; Philosophical Criticism; Aesthetics; The Philosophy of Art and Language; The Theory of History; Economics and Ethics; Essays in Criticism and Literary History; Moral and Political History. But first one should read the late Cecil Sprigge's excellent introduction.—M. J. V. (shrink)

This little booklet is a reprint of an important article of the Zeitschrift für neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der älten Kirche, 42, pp. 69-104. Through a superior command of Hellenistic sources the author analyzes St. Paul's two well-known utterances of a natural knowledge of God. The author uses the Epistle to the Romans to show that even though the Apostle's Greek terminology is borrowed from the Stoics, the ideas behind it, especially that of the "law," remain profoundly Jewish. On (...) the other hand, the famous discourse on Areopagus closely follows Poseidonius' views and probably comes not from Paul himself but from Luke, the writer of the Acts.—M. J. V. (shrink)

The author of a significant treatise on the philosophy of religion, Wagner is one of the few younger German philosophers who have managed to attain to prominence despite the crushing figure of Martin Heidegger. The present volume is an unchanged second edition of Wagner's best-known book. It is the fruit of patient scholarship as well as of sustained, creative intuition, a book which offers both modes of, and material for, thought.--M. J. V.

The present "Studienausgabe" is the fruit of over 40 years of labor on Paracelus [[sic]]. While Sudhoff's monumental edition continued by K. Goldhammer is intended to serve the specialist, Peuckert's aim is simply to make Paracelsus accessible to the philosopher and to the historian of ideas. Like Luther's, Paracelus's [[sic]] German is hardly comprehensible today; hence the editor had to "rewrite" it. The result is sound and easily understandable German. This welcome "vulgarization" should, however, have been compensated by notes: as (...) a matter of fact there are no critical or commenting notes in any of the volumes published as of now. We are promised a glossary at the end of the fifth volume, but even this will not mend the edition's essential shortcoming: a complete lack of any kind of scholarly apparatus. The first two volumes contain the major "medical" writings in chronological order. These earlier texts witness Paracelsus's emancipation from the ballast of medieval science: Galen, Avicenna, etc., and a significant turn towards a new conception of natural science in which speculation and experience are intimately interwoven. In the first volume there are several writings on Alchemy, among them the short treatise on the Three First Principles which was so heavily to influence the "pansophy" of the seventeenth century and even the great mystic of Görlitz, Jacob Boehme. The second volume contains the mature medical texts including the "Opus Paramirum," this herald of later bio-chemical thought. Obviously the real interest of the so-called medical texts lies in their speculative elements and they should be read together with the philosophical texts, making up the third volume. This third volume is rightly centered around the monumental "Philosophia Sagax," the major work of Paracelsus. This is the treatise whose influence reached far beyond the twilight of pansophy until the early and late Goethe and Romantic philosophy. Better than any other, this text demonstrates the uninterrupted continuity of German speculation throughout three centuries. If the resolution of the remaining two unpublished volumes turns out to be as fortunate as those reviewed here, these well-printed books should find their way to the shelves of any library, private or public, orientated towards the study of German philosophical thought.—M. J. V. (shrink)

C. G. Carus was the last and perhaps—besides G. H. Schubert—the most important representative of late Romantic philosophical anthropology. The present book is a welcome reprint of his most popular writing, a fascinating, imaginative, more speculative than experimental treatise on the different psychic functions. Carus' main thesis—avowedly inspired by the Schellingian Naturphilosophie—is the living unity of the body and the soul, which is itself, however, only a superior manifestation of a life-penetrated Universe. Like the other Romantic "scientists" gravitating around Schelling, (...) Carus was entirely forgotten during the second half of the nineteenth century; but he is now being read again.—M. J. V. (shrink)

After the post-war insistence on Schelling's middle philosophy, his late speculation is becoming again the focus of Schelling-studies--but now from a genuinely transcendental viewpoint. The origin of this shift in perspective can be traced back to W. Schulz's celebrated work on Schelling's late philosophy as the culmination of German idealism. The present study unmistakably displays the mark of Schulz's influence. Its thesis is that the early and late philosophies, are similar in that both have a double structure. In Schelling's Early (...) philosophy because the ego must represent itself at a certain stage of its development as matter, transcendental philosophy necessarily refers to the philosophy of nature. In his Late philosophy because finite knowledge has as its principle absolute freedom which manifests itself in history, negative philosophy necessarily refers to positive philosophy. Philosophy of nature and positive philosophy are privileged realms for the thinker to show the active presence of experience in reflection, i.e. to insist on the role of facticity in reason's self-founding and self-mediating enterprise. All this is presented in a clear, correct and competent way; however the style and expression are too abstract, and the reader is left with a feeling of narrow precision.--M. J. V. (shrink)

After some decades of eclipse, the thought of Schleiermacher has again become the subject of an ever growing number of studies and specialized monographs. The present one deals with one of his principal yet somewhat neglected works, his Christian Ethics. After some discussion of the history of the influence and of the interpretation of the treatise, Birkner analyzes the systematic presuppositions of its teaching within the framework of Schleiermacher's entire doctrine. The author then undertakes the treatment of its major themes. (...) It is a well-written, not over-ambitious yet substantial contribution to the Schleiermacher literature.--M. J. V. (shrink)

Once more these annals offer the reader a substantial collection of varied articles and studies, mostly pertaining to issues of medieval philosophy and metaphysics. The contributors are from Austria, West Germany, and South Korea. Especially interesting are: the study on Kant's early writing, "The Only Possible Proof of God," by J. Bauer; a very strict analysis of the thirteenth chapter of Cusanus' book, De Visione Dei, by the Proclus specialist W. Beierwaltes; and an attempt at the "reconciliation" of metaphysics and (...) positivism by R. Wohlgenannt. There are a number of shorter book reviews and a lengthy instructive review article on R. Berlinger's recent book on Augustine's dialectical metaphysics. This review article is at least as interesting and inspiring as the major articles making up the bulk of the book.--M. J. V. (shrink)

This is a monumental work. The author's aim is to follow the destiny of the self-explicitation [[sic]] of western thought from the concept of substance to that of structure. Authentic philosophical thinking has always been ontological, and structure, no less than substance is a form or species of being. System too is a species of being which leads from substance to structure. Structure is only an articulation and intensification of substance. The concept of structure is the central notion of contemporary (...) thought; it is at the focus of the natural as well as of the social sciences and it alone can bridge the gap between the "two cultures." It alone can pave the way for a new philosophical humanism which, without abandoning the claim to universality and "objectivity," retains the thinking man as its focus. The author's contention is that the concept of structure is far from being a newcomer on the scene but it has been rather ripening slowly throughout the great systems of the last six centuries. Without being in any way a treatise on the history of philosophy and on the history of science, the present book describes with great competence and persuasiveness the evolution of "structure" from Nicholas of Autrecourt via Cusanus and early modern science to Descartes. Next comes an extraordinarily rich and insightful analysis of the world of Pascal. Finally the conclusion is reached through a discussion of Leibniz and Kant. This is a difficult book, a long and complex one. It might well belong to those writings which reshape our understanding of the past, and through it, contribute to our expectations of the future.--M. J. V. (shrink)

This recent monograph on the famous head of the Protestant theological school of Tübingen is a mature and well-documented writing, despite a certain circularity and many repetitions in its argument. What Geiger tries to expound above all is Baur's speculative basis—or bias. Baur began with Schleiermacher, but the major and striking influence on Baur's thinking was exerted by Hegel. His books on the history of dogma are a theological counterpart of Hegel's phenomenology. But in his last writings, the speculative schemas (...) are quietly effaced, and we read suddenly that the essence of Christianity is the "pure moral conscience and the autonomy of the subject."—M. J. V. (shrink)

Wölfel's study is a very technical enterprise, profusely endowed with footnotes and making little attempt if any at reaching the nonspecialist. Yet the subject matter of the work must be of concern to anyone interested in philosophical theology and the history of Christian speculation. Two seemingly very distant topics, those of the Trinity and of natural theology are brought together by the author and the point of departure for this rapprochement is the univocal concept of being, one cornerstone of Scotism. (...) This is why a book almost entirely devoted to an investigation dwelling on the inner structure of the being of God can have relevance to general ontology.--M. J. V. (shrink)

Chuang Chou is counted among the greatest of the classical, Chinese philosophers. His thought, strongly inspired by the father of Taoism, Lao Tzu, is a reaction against the ritualized and ossified Confucianism of his own time. He shows little interest in legal matters and moral casuistry, and his whole work, i.e., the collection of texts attributed to him since ancient times, is centered around the deepest metaphysical and religious problems. God, and the way to Him, are the real subject matter (...) of his writings. But Chuang Chou attempted to write no treatise on systematic theology: he preferred to clothe his ideas in short stories, tales, and magnificent aphorisms. Practically no knowledge of the history of Chinese civilization is needed to understand and to love this book, which manages to preserve, after twenty-three centuries, its marvellous freshness.—M. J. V. (shrink)

This book is an interesting entry in the vast and ever expanding field of secondary literature on Hegelian ontologically grounded analysis of the relationship between theory and praxis. It is interesting and slightly unusual for it neither treats Hegel simply as the predecessor of Marx nor does it ignore the more contemporary problems of political philosophy arising from the Hegelian heritage. There is a balance between erudition and speculation and the thorough study of the texts always remains firmly subjected to (...) the broader problems of a philosophy of praxis. This book offers a general interpretation of Hegel and a judgment on the very locus of Hegelianism in the history of modern philosophy. Finally, one should not forget to commend the excurses: there are a number of them, they are short and concentrated, and some of them quote from unpublished student notes taken at Hegel's lectures.--M. J. V. (shrink)

Histories of philosophy generally jump from Kant directly to Fichte without mentioning Salomon Maimon; yet even Fichte wrote about his "unbounded admiration" toward the Jewish thinker. The present volume is a most welcome reprint of Maimon's principal work, out of print for over a century and a half, in which he tries to refute the very idea of a Ding-an-sich. It can be claimed that this same enterprise had been carried out more spectacularly and with greater originality and depth by (...) Fichte; but it remains Maimon's great merit to have exorcised the spectre of the noumena operating from within the very framework of the Critique.—M. J. V. (shrink)

One of the forgotten "small masters" of German Romanticism is the aesthetician Solger. Besides his famous Erwin, his only major writing is the Lectures on Aesthetics. It displays a coherent and original theory of the beautiful and of art, even though a continuous polemical relationship to Schelling, Fichte and Hegel is ever present in its pages. Solger's sensitive theorizing reconciles the norms of classicism with the aims of romanticism and at the same time points beyond them towards the fundamental principles (...) and attitudes of the coming realistic aesthetic. This book is a posthumous one, based upon lectures which Solger never intended to publish. As a matter of fact, he strongly opposed the practice of printing university courses as such. Yet, these texts are perhaps most representative of the subtle and harmonious thought of this man who died at the height of his creative life. Their reprinting is an important literary event.—M. J. V. (shrink)

The present reprint of Reinhold's principal work is a great service to anybody undertaking a genetic study of the evolution of Fichte's Wissenschaftslehre from Kant's Critique. Reinhold was by no means an original and creative mind. His major importance lies in his systematic formulation of some central problems in the Kantian philosophy in an attempt to overcome the latter's major weakness: the rigid separation of the knowing faculties from each other. But the unified "faculty of representation" proposed by Reinhold shifted (...) the focus of epistemological considerations into an overtly psychological direction which only Fichte was to correct. All the same, among the epigons [[sic]] and half-Kantians of the outgoing eighteenth century, Reinhold alone can still be read with interest and genuine appreciation.—M. J. V. (shrink)

In the mushrooming literature on the late Heidegger, Pugliese's book stands with the distinction of an immense and sometimes almost exasperating amount of learned notes and excurses [[sic]]. On the other hand, the speculative core of the work is a highly original one. It treats the famous "Kehre" in the continuity of Heidegger's thought and proves quite convincingly that it can be organically developed from the original thesis of "historicity" as it stands in Sein und Zeit. Making use of the (...) earliest texts as well as of a number of unpublished lecture-notes, Pugliese tries to back those interpretations which claim that the "Kehre" is indeed a turning-point in the history of metaphysics--even though it represents no break or revolution in Heidegger's own thought. This is a difficult book but fortunately devoid of the affected mannerism of so many Heidegger admirers, and a telling example of the frequent success of French and Spanish "translations" of German speculation.--M. J. V. (shrink)

These intentionally loose reflections on the different aspects of motherhood certainly give food for sustained thought; but they fall short of being the promised metaphysics. It is strange that no one has ever tried to write a philosophical monograph on motherhood before, even though the subject is "in the air." Schapp, by making use of historical, sociological, and psychological observations limited to Western cultures, gives an unpretentious yet insightful sketch for a more definitive work which remains to be written. The (...) most interesting part of the book is the author's attempt to show that fatherhood is historically posterior to and metaphysically dependent upon motherhood. However, this alleged metaphysical dependence is not demonstrated conceptually and the reader is tempted to conclude that even the contemporary evolution of the role of the woman in marriage and the family might not fully fit into what the author supposes to be the temporally unfolding yet eternal essence of motherhood.—M. J. V. (shrink)