A provocative and original interpretation of the Parmenides as constructive, positive metaphysics. By bringing together the speculative enthusiasm of the continental tradition with the more patient analysis of English scholarship Lynch has opened up a new line of inquiry and discussion.--R. S. B.

An anthology, in German translation with brief historical and mathematical notes, of selected theorems and proofs which the author has chosen as perfect specimens of the mode of mathematical thinking reflected in the development of pure mathematics in Greece. Both the scholarship and the selection are excellent.--R. S. B.

An elegant book, with careful scholarly annotation, by two scholars who believe that Plato has a contribution to offer to the thought of modern Japan. It will be interesting to see what scholars in the field say as to how far, if at all, Plato's thought must be deflected toward or from Zen Buddhism by the overtones of the language in any Japanese translation. But the choice of these three dialogues for translation evidently reflects a central interest in Plato's analyses (...) of love and desire as an attempt at building a coherent, if somewhat discursive, bridge in a Western style between finite beings in time and their background in eternity. And the Western Platonist should feel that there could perhaps be no more propitious prologue to the Symposium than the Japanese philosophic tradition expressed in Bashö's poems, such as "The Milky Way" : A stormy sea--To Sado Isle reaches The River of Heaven. --R. S. B. (shrink)

A new translation of the Platonic Letters, with clear and judicious discussion of their importance and individual claims to authenticity. By comparing the ideas expressed in the epistles with those in the late dialogues, Morrow provides an excellent corrective to some earlier views that the doctrines are un-Platonic because they do not square with passages in the middle period dialogues. Letters VII and VIII, the longest and most important of the collection, are shown to have excellent claims to authenticity. An (...) important and welcome addition to our English translations and editions of Plato.--R. S. B. (shrink)

An intelligently and originally organized survey, which cites with brief abstracts and some appraisals studies of Plato that appeared during the period 1950-1957. The range of coverage is almost exhaustive and is carefully cross-referenced. The citation of material in Dutch, Portuguese, and Norwegian, supplementing complete coverage of English, French, German, and Italian books and articles, should prove of value in revealing common interests and furthering international communication among scholars. Philological and analytic approaches are usually commended, but dialectical treatments which fit (...) neither category usually elicit an unjustified negative appraisal. An indispensable book for the general practitioner in philosophy as well as for the specialist. --R. S. B. (shrink)

This is the first new edition of the Meno with English commentary and annotation since Thompson's in 1901. Dr. Bluck brings to bear more recent scholarship in his commentary and notes, which are judicious and thorough; and his new collations help to make the text the best available. Any account of the Meno's truth and meaning should begin with the careful textual, philological, logical, and historical considerations of the commentary and introduction of this new edition.--R. S. B.

A patient attempt to get the philological detail of Parmenides' poem precise, by an author who has the virtue of recognizing the inseparability of philosophical considerations and philological technique. The conclusion is offered that the Eleatics were dualists almost in a Platonic sense, but with no causal connection between "being " and phenomena; thus there is no contradiction between the two parts of Parmenides' poem, and a strong historical affinity between Eleaticism and Plato's dualism. There is not quite enough precision (...) nor imagination in the philosophical dimension proper to make this study entirely definitive; but it offers an interesting approach, with a suggestive outcome.--R. S. B. (shrink)

A first-rate speculative interpretation. Wyller's sympathies are with the Neo-Platonic tradition, supplemented by insights from Heidegger. His study, however, extends to details of the Parmenides architectonic, and establishes significant parallels of structure between its form and that of other dialogues. It is a work that all students of the Parmenides should examine.--R. S. B.

This careful and detailed inquiry is an exploration of the inner tension in Aristotle of the "presence" of specific form and the "presentation" of concrete type instance, by way of a study of predication and its ontological ground.--R. S. B.

This monograph introduces a new series with an inquiry into certain functions and limits of language. Tiles's immediate subject for examination is Strawson's claim that the use of language does not require a user who can recognize the identity and diversity of events. This suggests to the author that "language" stands for a whole family of systems of communication, possibly based on different kinds and degrees of cognitive activity. A brilliant investigation of successive "models" of the experience of users of (...) language leads from simple to subtle structure and content. The starting point is an agent who is a mere "feature-placer"--he can only recognize and distinguish specific individual sense reports. Such a being can report isolated items of input, but that is about all, and it is not very serviceable. As the models become more complex, the author assumes that the sort of "language" we presuppose in our analyses is one able to function to guide human action in a cooperative social community. The kinds and numbers of different abilities this presupposed requirement brings with it-including the ability to recognize the identity of a recurrence of the same event--is developed. On the level a Kantian would consider that of "forms of intuition," insight is sharpened by a use of abstract logical tools to specify the formal conditions presupposed by the assumed psychological behavior of the language user. In some ways, the redirection from the structure and logic of language to the intentions and psychological capacities of its users may be reminiscent of an earlier development in Scottish philosophy. Readers of Whitehead, at any rate, may see some analogy to the redirection by Scottish realists from Hume's focus on presentational immediacy to the wider world of causal efficacy. (shrink)