Journal of the History of Philosophy

102 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY centuries, and twelve chapters divided between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Although the early chapters present an adequate outline, the weight in this study falls on the last centuries. Here Thayer shows how European idealism and the rise of interest in psychology , spurred by the theories of G. Stanley Hall, provide a setting for understanding the predominant tendencies of twentieth-century philosophy of education with its emphasis on human nature as a base for curricula study. Thayer repeatedly states that ideas from various periods had a profound influence on schools. He has not developed the data that can support such claims. This is a common fault even among the better histories of education. While Thayer does a good job of showing where philosophical positions were derived, he does not examine the kind of information that tells what influence these had on education. Students of the philosophy of education will find this a valuable book. Members of the general public who have been concerned because they have been led to believe through writing in the popular press that irresponsible fads have corrupted American education, will find the steady look at recent history provided in Thayer's study reassuring. Cn~s E. Cua~A~ Claremont, Cali]ornia Philosophie als Er]ahrungswissenscha#: AuIsiitze zur philosophischen Anthropolooie und Sprachphilosophie. By Hermann Wein. Ausgewii~lt und eingeleitet yon Jan M. Broekman. (Den Hang: Martinus Nijhoff, 1965. Pp. 256.) Sprachphilosophie der Gegenwart: Eine EinIi~hrunq in die europSisehe und amerikanische Sprachphilosophie des 20. Jahrhunderts. By Hermann Wein. (Den Haag: Martinus Nijhoff , 1963. Pp. vii + 84.) Philosophische Anthropologie, Metapolitik und Politische Bildung: Em Beispiel Philosophisch -Anthropologischer Ideologie-Kritik: Kritik der Marxistisehen und Antimarxistischen Ideologie und ihrer Anthropologien. By Hermann Wein. (Niedersiiehsische Landeszentrale fiir Politische Bildung, 1965. Pp. 48. ----Schriftenreihe der Niedersi~chsischen Landeszentrale fiir Politische Bildung, Wissenschaft und Politik, Heft 4.) The selection of Hermann Wein's recent essays in Philosophie als ErIahrungswisse~cha# and the bibliography of his writings (including his many recent contributions to the Neue Zi~rcher Zeitung) which concludes this volume mark the culmination of a steady growth in his mind of a comprehensive philosophy. This growth began with his critical estimates of Nicolai Hartmann's ontology and of Hegel's historical dialectic. His arrival at a "philosophy of experience" was first announced in an essay of 1954, not included in this volume, entitled "Zwischen Philosophie und Erfahrungswissenschaft" in Deutscher Geist zwischen Gestern und Morgen (Stuttgart); and his revision of Hegel's conception of objektiver Geist was first expounded in his 1957 Realdialektik. Von Hegel~cher Dialektik zu Dialektischer Anthropologie (R. Oldenbourg Verlag, Miinchen), which was reprinted by Nijheff in 1964. The general movements in German philosophical and sociological thought during the twentieth century, which were the context of Wein's development, are described in the Introduction by Jan M. Broekman, and this essay gives us a highly informative historical sketch of trends that are relatively little known abroad and that are of special interest to Americans because of similar trends in the United States. Wein's philosophy is not an exercise in empiricism , but is a comprehensive science of experience or philosophical anthropology. Its most striking feature is its conception of "objective mind" or "culture" as the system of human Handlung, transaction. Wein summarizes it as follows: Ich verstehe das Wort "Geistesgeschichte" weder in einem transzendentalen oder metaphysischen noch in einem historistischen Sinne. Ich verstehe es vielmehr zun~chst in seinem wbrtlichen Sinn des Inbegriffs gesehichtlieher Tatsachen, nur eben nicht solcher der pragmatischen , politischen Geschiehte. Deswegen kSnnen die hier z~hlenden "Tatsachen" emen BOOK REVIEWS 103 den Naturtatsachen erkenntnistheoretisch durchaus ebenbtirtigen Tatsachensinn haben, wie immer auch Natur und Geschichte sonst zu unterscheiden sein mSgen. Das Problem im Hintergrund ist ffihlbar. Das Wort "Menschheit" trifft den eigentlichen T~ter der Tatsachen ebenfalls nicht. Akteure sind realiter menschliche Individuen, die geistige , kulturelle Verwirklichungsweisen kennen und tiben--aber diese Individuen doch wiederum nur in Gruppen gleicher Denkweise und Einstellung die genau genommen allein Geistesgeschichte machen. Denn w~hrend der ziindende Funke immer vom einzelnen Geist ausgeht, w~chst er doch nicht zum geschichtlichen Impuls an, ohne dass andere ihn aufnehmen und mitentziindet werden. Das Problem im Hintergrund der Geistesgeschichte als eines...