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)

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)

This is a fine book on a heroic and noble figure of Russian political and intellectual history. Alexander Radishchev, descendant of Tartar princes, was a page at the court of Catherine the Great who sent him to Leipzig to complete his education. Imbued by the ideas of the 18th century in Germany and of the French enlightenment, Radishchev went back to his native Russia but could not reconcile himself to the horrible state of the Russian serfs. Thus he wrote a (...) vitriolic denunciation of the feudal regime in A Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow after which the Empress Catherine exiled him to Siberia. Eventually he managed to get back to the capital but he was unable to win back his former position. In despair of ever realizing his ideas he committed suicide. His tormented life and his rich, eclectic philosophic and political views are treated in this well-written, interesting study.--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)

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)

This is an ambitious venture into the thicket of medieval philosophy: what is the true object of metaphysics? The book begins with a number of texts, printed after various manuscripts through which the author hopes to illustrate the development of a certain chain of ideas. After a short introduction on the Aristotelian and Arabic sources of the whole problematics, there are three fundamental solutions of the question: God is one of the many subjects of metaphysics, God is the cause of (...) the subject of metaphysics, God is a part of the subject of metaphysics. These major alternatives are followed by their respective development in the works of later authors. Besides the more usual writers like St. Thomas, Scotus, R. Bacon, Siger of Brabant, Henry of Ghent, we are given interesting and penetrating accounts of the ideas of men like Augustinus Triumphus of Ancona, Petrus of Alvernia, John Quidort of Paris, etc. Despite the first impression provoked by the table of contents this book is not a herbarium of rarities or curiosities but a highly concentrated and often fascinating study of the real topics of all metaphysics and through this perhaps of the very possibility of metaphysics as such.--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)

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)

Neo-scholasticism is supposed to be a "creative" development of the spirit of Thomism and its application to contemporary philosophical themes. Yet its partisans as well as its adversaries largely ignore the fact that many of the neo-scholastic thinkers are increasingly applying the transcendental method to reach the major ideas of Aquinas. The thesis of the present book is that the "transcendental method," viewed in a large sense as stretching from Kant to Heidegger, is an integral part of the thought of (...) several well-known neo-Thomists, and that it touches the work of many others. The author studies extensively the work of J. Maréchal, who was the first to attempt an integration of transcendental idealism into the realistic metaphysics of the school of Saint Thomas. Following a review of minor figures like Grégoire, Defever, and Isaye, short chapters investigate the critical approach of certain important contemporary Catholic thinkers to the transcendental method. A highly interesting part of the book treats the neo-scholastic "dialogue" with Heidegger, which is especially important in the work of the most powerful theological mind of contemporary Roman Catholicism, Karl Rahner. Finally, Muck shows, in the chapters on A. Marc, B. Lonergan, and E. Coreth, three examples of fully developed philosophical systems worked out by means of an extensive use of the transcendental method.—M. J. V. (shrink)

Witnessing to the strong present-day interest in the formation of the great scholastic syntheses of the thirteenth century are the large number of studies devoted to the lesser thinkers of the preceding century. The English-born Robert of Melun is one of these so far largely neglected authors. Despite the edition of his major works in Louvain by R. M. Martin, little has been written on this gifted pupil of Abelard. Horst cuts a large and central piece out of Robert's "system": (...) the doctrines of the Trinity and of God. After a detailed analysis of the sources of his thinking, the Trinity is dealt with and then God. Under the pen of Robert, the sharp dialectical method of Abelard serves to elaborate Augustine's speculation on the Trinity. Yet the author—in line with the contemporary interest in trinitology—is not satisfied to expound the subtle distinctions Robert made but strives to show also how they can have a bearing on the "economy of salvation." There is a rather liberal dose of lengthy Latin quotes, footnotes mushroom, and secondary literature is quoted by the yard. To sum up: this is a serious and articulate treatment of two central questions of scholastic theology and we are glad to read the promise of a continuation treating Robert's anthropology, angelology, and his views on the First Man.—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)

The present book is a reprint of a classical study of Hegel, the first important work marking the renewal of interest in Hegel initiated by Dilthey's Hegels Jugendgeschichte. Rosenzweig's monograph is a still unsurpassed treatment of Hegel's political and social philosophy: a monument of scholarship, of broad vision and patient analysis. Proceeding in chronological order, the first volume concludes with the Phenomenology of the Spirit. Especially interesting are the two long chapters dealing with the less-known yet quite voluminous literary production (...) of the Jena-period. The second volume treats Hegel's "reconciliation" with his time and his unceasing effort to "cover" or better, to "ground" the legal system, the family, society, state, and constitution. The author manages to do justice to the historico-political conditioning of Hegel's metaphysics of the state without allowing himself to fall into the simplistic "sociology of knowledge" practiced with so much zeal by more modern, especially Marxist, authors. The book is written in the characteristically beautiful German prose of Rosenzweig, untouched by the sorry obscurities of so many "learned" interpretations of Hegel's system.--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)

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)

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)

More than six centuries of Christian and non-Christian reflection and admiration of Meister Eckhart are the subject matter of this very scholarly yet very readable work. Philosophers like Nicolas Cusanus and Hegel, great scholars like H. Denifle and a number of lesser men are examined in order to determine what they thought about Eckhart, what they learned from him, how much they knew of him. The medieval condemnations and Cusanus' admiration issued into a period of relative neglect of Eckhart, broken (...) only by the deserving attempts of Daniel Sudermann to collect Eckhart's manuscripts. The great Dominican did not come into his own until the beginning of the last century. Franz von Baader was the one who "discovered" him and who drew Hegel's attention to some of his texts. With the monographs by C. Schmidt and Bishop Martensen, Eckhart had become known to the philosophical public as a forerunner of nineteenth-century speculation and this image had not been shattered until Denifle shifted the focus of attention to the Latin texts with their more orthodox formulations. In this century there has been a renewal of interest in the German writings which continue to have a certain popular appeal, but now, thanks to the monumental edition of the complete works, a more objective and more scholarly atmosphere pervades the literature on Meister Eckhart.--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)

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)

This is an interesting theologically oriented study of Saint Bernard's teachings on man. The author tackles the central issue of Bernardian studies: was this holy monk a theologian or a philosopher, or both? Bernard's entire œuvre is penetrated by the questioning of the boundaries of natural and revealed knowledge, i.e., of philosophy and theology. The doctrine of man, that microcosmos in whom God was made flesh, is the best and the most likely ground on which to discuss the interconnection between (...) faith and reason, which was the most intricate issue of medieval culture. To do this, we need, among other things, a chart of the human intellectual faculties—and the author gives us exactly this. This is the core of the book but there is more. He presents an analysis of the properly philosophical aspects and patterns of Bernard's way of thinking, and also a good chapter on his metaphysics of the relationship between body and soul. The author is well-versed in the enormous secondary literature on Saint Bernard to which his study is a valuable addition.—M. J. V. (shrink)

It seems to be more and more evident that the onto-theological notion of the Trinity is at the center of Hegel's thought. Already strongly present in the Jugendschriften, sparingly though most forcefully treated in the Phenomenology, it comes really to the fore in the Encyclopedia and in the Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion. Though none of the major commentators have avoided the issue, until recent years there had been only the short study of J. Hessen devoted to the problem. (...) Splett promises to treat extensively the questions Hessen has only touched upon, and does so by a combination of a historical and a systematic analysis of Hegel's thought. The first chapter shows his progression from the texts of Frankfurt via the fascinating Jenafragment on the Divine Triangle to the Phenomenology. The second chapter is devoted to the Propaedeutics, the Logic, and the Encyclopedia where the idea is represented in its naked, speculative articulation. Thereafter comes a collection of relevant texts taken from different lectures on the philosophy of the spirit--and, finally, a clear and succinct exposé of the mature doctrine of the Philosophy of Religion. In the conclusion the author tries to formulate a number of issues where Hegelian speculation and Christian dogmatics might converge. To sum up: this is a good, clear, well-written monograph.--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)

Though in a slightly recalcitrant mood, continental Neo-Scholastic writers have been for many decades quite extensively dealing with Kant and the major "critical" problems. An interesting product of this preoccupation is Santeler's long study of the foundation of human dignity in Kant. The thesis of the author is that Kant rejected metaphysics, i.e., ontology, not so much because of the well-known classical theoretical and epistemological reasons but in order to formulate a more fundamental, more autonomous notion of human dignity. We (...) could say the Santeler is motivated by the famous Kantian remark about limiting understanding in order to make room for faith. There is undoubtedly a considerable amount of historical scholarship in those small-printed pages but their fighting mood is more reminiscent of contemporary Anglo-American Kant literature than of the usual elaborate exegesis offered by Continental scholars.--M. J. V. (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)

This excellent short book has come only belatedly to our attention. Unlike the more recent work of J. Schlanger, Meier's aim is not to revise, even less to revolutionize, our understanding of the young Schelling. He is following the classical interpretation--from Hegel to Kroner--that already the early Schelling displayed unmistakable signs of an ontological dogmatism. Indeed, with the exception of the ethical inspiration of the celebrated Letters on Dogmatism and Criticism and the gnoseological investigations of the Treatises, the early Schelling (...) is concerned with the issues of ontology--this is at least the author's thesis. The hollow majesty of the System of 1801 is foreshadowed by innumerable passages in the writings on the philosophy of nature. It is true that the System of Transcendental Idealism does display a certain parallelism between the gnoseological and ontological elements--but the balance is quickly broken. Under the appearance of the reconciliation of dogmatism and criticism in the doctrine of absolute knowledge via intellectual intuition, Schelling completes the restoration of ontology in the Bruno, in the Lectures on Academical Studies, and in the System of Würzburg. All this is expounded in clear, precise, well articulated chapters which enable the reader to attain a unified view of the central themes and inspirations of the immense literary production of the early Schelling.--M. J. V. (shrink)

Neither the speculative depth of Meister Eckhart nor the willpower and inner drive of Tauler are to be found in the writings of the third great mystic of fourteenth-century Rhineland, Henry Seuse. But we might well be compensated by authenticity of the description of the spiritual experience. This is not an edition for scholars and does not even try to resurrect the so savagely fought for issue on the authorship of Seuse's autobiography. We have here a major document of spiritual (...) life, with a great literary work making up about one-half of it. The other half contains the Booklet of the Eternal Wisdom, the Booklet of Truth, the Booklet of Letters, and two Sermons. Perhaps a little more critical apparatus and a little more comment on the themes of the texts would have improved the book, but instead of giving this, the translator simply refers to a book on Henry Seuse published in the same year, 1966. Even so this is a beautiful and important collection.--M. J. V. (shrink)

Benz is a most prolific writer on the history of speculative theology and theosophy and he is especially well-known for his studies on Oetinger and Swedenborg, but at the beginning of his long career he devoted several books to earlier doctrinal developments. There have been many other serious attempts at a comprehensive exposition of the evolution of the different branches of Franciscan theology but the present one is especially interesting because of its strong speculative foundations. Although speculative, these foundations do (...) not prevent a continual elaboration of the political context of the genesis of ideas. From the "predecessor" Joachin da Fiore through Saint Francis himself, to the little known figures of Angelo Clareno, and Olivi and Arnoldo da Villanova, we see the unfolding of the eschatologically orientated theories of the "spiritual church," the challenge which they represented to the "official" theology of the late middle ages, and the ways they were neutralized by the Church of Rome. The book is dealing with more than obscure heresies of remote ages: it expounds issues and ideas which foreshadow and anticipate German Idealism's philosophy of history.--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 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.

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)

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)

There has been a most deserving movement in the last years to unite in one volume the most important scholarly articles written on the same topic yet published in different learned journals. The present volume is devoted to the problems of medieval German and Dutch mysticism from its beginnings to The Imitation of Christ. The selection is interesting and varied yet a certain technical narrowness pervades the whole volume. Instead of sharing the pages somewhat equally between philological and philosophico-theological articles, (...) there is a heavy preponderance of the purely philological and of the strictly historical. Moreover, the papers of a more philosophical character talk less to the philosophically interested reader than to the specialist in the history of medieval philosophy. Of course, there are welcome exceptions like the fine study of Joseph Koch on Eckhart's doctrine of analogy or A. Ampe's article on the "essential return of the soul to God according to Jan Van Ruysbroeck"--but the general tone of the volume is such that the non-specialist would have difficulty to be interested in many of its chapters.--M. J. V. (shrink)

One of the most significant theories of the late Brentano is that only the real can be represented, while of the so-called non-real we can formulate no authentic concepts but only fictions of language. This doctrine has not been fully comprehended by some of the best students of Brentano's thought, although others have called it "the Copernican turning-point" of his philosophy. The present selection of texts is intended to clarify and expound the controversial theory. Ninety-one letters exchanged between Brentano, Marty, (...) and O. Kraus make up the bulk of the volume and they are followed by fourteen short essays, all but one unpublished up to now. These are difficult and condensed texts but they allow us to follow closely the intense struggle of this great philosopher to articulate and to explain a theory which he had considered immensely important. They continuously refer to Aristotle whom Brentano venerated. There is a fair amount of comment on Kant, Husserl, and Meinong. A long and interesting introduction by Mayer-Hillebrand with concise yet comprehensive notes completes the volume.--M. J. V. (shrink)

Hegel's philosophy of history used to be interpreted mainly in terms of what it is supposed to say about the direction and the end of history, yet the central historical category is, after all, the present, "the spiritual midday." True historicity is in the concrete moment--and this is the thesis that so many commentators of the Phenomenology of the Spirit neglect to emphasize. Hence, after a dutiful examination of the concept of history in this first major work of the philosopher, (...) the author engages in a detailed and interesting history of the interpretations of the Phenomenology. From Feuerbach to Rohrmoser, via Marx, Kierkegaard, and Heidegger we see the radiation of this great work; then comes a discussion with Kojève. In this Auseinandersetzung one definitely senses a sort of aversion toward the brilliant French interpreter but even here the historian's objectivity and expository purpose prevail.--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)

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)

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)

One of the most interesting and difficult tasks of contemporary theological reflection is the elaboration of a verifiable theology. The subject is as old as theology itself, and the contemporaries of Schleiermacher, like Hegel and Schelling, devoted immense industry and ingenuity to a speculative study of the history of religions. Yet the idealist's philosophical approach could not satisfy Schleiermacher whose very point of departure is the autonomous category of the religious. His peculiar approach to the different positive religions, their necessity (...) as well as their facticity, is the central theme of Welker's book. In a way, we are given a restatement of Schleiermacher's fundamental views on religion and religions. The treatment of the history of religion is only a corollary of these more general issues. The book is concluded with a rich and interesting chapter comparing Schleiermacher with Rudolph Otto.--M. J. V. (shrink)

This volume is the reprint of perhaps the best study of Goethe's philosophy. Its importance lies in its method. Instead of trying only to collect material pertaining to traditional, philosophical problems, it makes a deep-reaching attempt to grasp and to extricate the metaphysical foundations and basic themes of Goethe's Weltanschauung. There is a thoroughgoing analysis of his "morphological" method and excellent, long passages on his magnificent studies of the life and the structure of plants. The culmination of the whole work (...) is its third part: on the symbol considered what it truly is, not a merely esthetical [[sic]], but an essentially metaphysical notion. The book is not easy to read and it does presuppose a certain familiarity with Goethe's whole oeuvre. Those interested in the history of German idealism will certainly appreciate the parallels with Kant, but unfortunately Weinhandl omits the important parallels with Schelling.—M. J. V. (shrink)

This big book is a welcome collection of some of the most important theological studies on St. Paul written by German scholars of this century. Some of the authors are among the greatest names of modern exegetical science and the present selection enables the reader to have access to a wide range of first-rate, often classical, accounts of Paulinian research, without being forced to go through the back-issues of German theological journals. Besides the classical studies, written for encyclopedical purposes, by (...) A. Schaatter and W. Wrede, we can compare A. Schweitzer's and R. Bultmann's accounts on the state of Paulinian researches. Another article of R. Bultmann is about the ethics of St. Paul while von Soden studies sacrament and ethics in the work of the apostle of the Gentiles. Other major articles are: K. Holl: Paul's concept of the Church in its relationship to the primitive Christian community; R. Reitzenstein: Paul as a pneumatician; [[sic]] M. Dibelius: Paul and the Mystic; M. Pohlenz: Paul and the Stoa; L. Baeck: The faith of Paul; G. Bornkamm: Faith and reason in Paul.--M. J. V. (shrink)

A well-documented, thorough but not imaginative study of the Dialogues. The writer is trying to establish definite proofs for the classical thesis, namely that for Plato evil is the material and good is the rational. After a very short introduction we see most of the dialogues analyzed in chronological order. Three periods are distinguished in the development of Platonic views on reason and evil: Early dialogues : insistence on the opposition between pleasure and the affections on the one hand and (...) reason and knowledge which help to develop the good in the soul, on the other hand; Middle period : explicit identification of the bodily with evil and negativity; Later period : generalization and deepening of the concept of evil which is now definitely located in the unruly and chaotic matter of the universe. There is nothing substantially new in the book, and in the long chapter on the Republic one finds detailed summaries of quite irrelevant passages. Yet the book is a useful one: a serious and comprehensive monograph on a central theme of Platonic thought.—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)

Herder spent two years studying at the University of Königsberg and attended four courses taught by Kant, who at the time had just published his first really important philosophical writing on the "Only Possible Proof of the Demonstration of God's Existence." Herder's notes are probably the only ones preserved from any lecture by Kant in that decade. The texts on logic and mathematics are short and insignificant. The pages on metaphysics are devoted to mostly psychological inquiries. Herder's notes are most (...) complete on "Practical Philosophy after Hutcheson and Baumgarten" where Kant analyzes not only purely ethical questions, but treats at some length religious issues as well. Even though these notes do not revolutionize our understanding of the genesis of Kant's philosophy, they do help us to retrace in more detail his road to the Dissertation of 1770 and to the critical writings. The editor's introduction is brief but good, and the bibliographical notes are abundant and excellent.—M. J. V. (shrink)

Eckhart is usually treated from the viewpoints of philosophy or speculative mysticism. Weiss is a theologian and his well-documented, heavily-footnoted study on salvation history in Meister Eckhart is a departure from this tradition. Without any claim to revolutionize our Eckhart-image he explores the themes of original sin, Incarnation, Passion and the glorification of Christ, the Church and the sacraments. All these themes of positive theology unfold in the context of the respective patristic and scholastic doctrines. The very meagerness of Eckhart's (...) teaching on the traditional positive and historical aspects of Christian thought reveals how strong and fundamental were this great Dominican's leanings toward neo-Platonic essentialism.—M. J. V. (shrink)

Karl Barth's younger brother died shortly before the publication of this monumental work, the crowning piece of his long philosophical career. Since Sein und Zeit and L'Etre et le Néant the present book has been the first real "treatise" in what now we might call "the existentialistic tradition." Such a short notice cannot even hope to enumerate the major themes of this huge volume. This is a truly significant work covering most of the themes that attract a passionate concern for (...) the history of Western philosophizing. The continuity with this history is preserved through the determination of existence as knowledge. The question and the quest about appearance is conducted in such a way that neither the existentialist nor the transcendental elements are neglected. Throughout the entire book it is argued that appearance and existence are positively grounded in transcendence.—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)

Susini, who is Professor of German at the Sorbonne, seems to have devoted his life to the study of German mysticism. After his monumental work on Baader he now offers a new edition of the famous spiritual poems of Angelus Silesius along with a French translation. While the Introduction to the first volume is quite short and devoid of any attempt at offering a new authoritative interpretation of the Silesian Mystic's work and thought, the second volume consists entirely of notes (...) displaying the author's vast and admirable erudition. These notes place Angelus Silesius in the general context of the history of Western mysticism, especially in regard to philosophical and speculative matters. They also allow us to retrace a certain influence he had on philosophers as different as Hegel, Schopenhauer, and Baader. As far as the French text of the poems is concerned, even though the great beauty of the original is not matched, the translation is correct and poetical.—M. J. V. (shrink)

Though Joseph Nadler published the definitive, critical edition of Hamanns' complete works, the hermetic character of these texts warrants only too strongly a publication of at least the major texts with commentaries. The annotated edition is planned to comprise eight volumes. From the viewpoint of the history of ideas, Vol. IV is undoubtedly the most interesting, since it contains the important texts on the origin of language. These were directly provoked by Herder's famous Abhandlung über den Ursprung der Sprache; "the (...) Magician of the North" fights the spirit of the Aufklärung even when it is clothed in the more attractive, pre-romantic setting of Herder's prose. Besides a fantastic amount of notes and commentary, Miss Büchsel, the editor of Vol. IV, offers a comprehensive and penetrating introductory study. Especially important are the chapters on the "pre-history" of Hamanns' Herder-interpretation and its influence on the later development of German intellectual life from the early Goethe to the old Schelling Vol. V contains the so-called mystery-writings directly pertinent to the Christian doctrine of the revelation of the Incarnated Son of God. These texts are truly esoteric, and even the multitude of notes accompanying them cannot always fully overcome their terrible obscurity. And here arises the only objection against this edition. The notes and commentaries are a mine of detailed information, and they "unconceal" the meaning of every word. Yet perhaps their very abundance impedes their stated purpose. They do help in understanding the words, but they make sustained reading of the texts themselves impossible. The encyclopedical character of the notes is cause for both exasperation and for growth in knowledge and inspiration.—M. J. V. (shrink)

Goethe said that he had a high opinion of Franz von Baader, but unfortunately he could not understand what the Bavarian thinker wrote. Despite the efforts of Franz Hoffmann in the last century and of Eugene Susini in our days, Baader remained a closed book, even though his complete works have been recently reprinted. The extraordinary interest of Baader's oeuvre lies in his complex historical position: though he belongs to the world of speculative idealism, this Catholic thinker fundamentally rejects its (...) monistic inspiration. The present author treats Baader's conception of transcendence as rooted in an existential metaphysics of the will, through a very contemporary philosophical language which does not always successfully blend with Baader's own complicated parlance.—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)