The second part of the work described above, covering, in 3 volumes, the period from the first Patristic thinkers to the fourteenth century. The texts in these volumes, as in those on classical thought, are organized by topics, and are designed to express fundamental assumptions, principles and definitions of their various authors. --V. C. C.

A warm and sympathetic reconstruction, by an obvious admirer, of the life, times and work of K'ung Ch'iu, based upon the Confucian Classics and a variety of historical sources, including the works of recent scholars. A helpful bibliography is included.--V. C. C.

An elementary textbook in Thomistic Metaphysics designed for use in Catholic colleges and seminaries. Strictly traditional in content and terminology, the book attempts nevertheless to argue its points in ways convincing to beginning students.--V. C. C.

Liebe Frau Henry! Herzlichen Dank für Ihren Brief und für die beiden Artikel Sie sind der erste Mensch, der es meiner Kenntnis nach erreicht hat, dass die Resolutionen in extenso abgedruckt wurden, und ich bin sehr froh, dass es an dieser Stelle gerade geschehen ist. Ich habe mich übrigens mit hiesigen physikalisch-mathematischen Studienräten verabredet, einmal an ihrem Unterricht teilzunehmen und dann das Problem der Stoffbeschränkung in der Physik mit ihnen zu besprechen.

Liebe Frau Henry! Auf Ihren Brief antworte ich sofort. Ihren gemeinsamen Brief an Herrn Picht und mich habe ich freilich immer noch nicht beantwortet, aber dazu braucht es mehr Gelassenheit, als mir im Moment eine etwas mir über den Kopf wachsende Reisetätigkeit gelassen hat. Nun aber zu Ihren praktischen Fragen.

An extended polemic, couched in familiar and fairly naive terms, against "faith, myth and superstition." Chance, the author argues, and the physical processes of which it is the dominant feature, form "the guiding principle for our lives."--V. C. C.

The life and thought of the sixteenth-century Flemish humanist Justus Lipsius provide the author of this valuable monograph with a convenient point of departure for studying the development of Stoicism in the later Renaissance. Lipsius was the first scholar thoroughly to examine the original Greek as well as the later Roman sources of the Stoic ethical doctrines which owing to the influence of the Latin humanists, were so widespread in Renaissance thought. As a result of his researches, Lipsius recognized the (...) importance of, and revived interest in, the distinctive physical and metaphysical doctrines underlying Stoic ethical theory. It is upon Lipsius' formulation of these doctrines, and his struggle to reconcile them with their Christian counterparts, that Mr. Saunders concentrates his attention. The result is a lively and informative contribution to the understanding of Renaissance thought.--V. C. C. (shrink)

A smooth and natural translation, with footnotes to explain lost Greek puns and point out apparent interpolations in the original text. The introduction seems gratuitous and sometimes overblown.--V. C. C.

A famous modern work in the philosophy of art, again made available in the excellent Dover series of reprints.--V. C. C.

A new edition of the Introduction to the Philosophie der Weltgeschichte, one of a number now being published in the Neue kritische Ausgabe of Hegel's works. The editor has made a comprehensive review of the scattered sources from which Hegel's text has been reconstructed, and of the previous editions. The result is the most complete and best arranged text yet to appear, marking a considerable improvement upon the 1930 edition of Lasson.--V. C. C.

An attempt to deal with "the fundamental philosophical problem of the Absolute" in an original way. Absolute Being is interpreted as "the act of total existence," and is taken to include all that is or can be, as well as what "exists" negatively or is not.--V. C. C.

One of the most famous passages in modern literature, conveniently reprinted in pamphlet form.--V. C. C.

The main object of this impressive study is to lay the groundwork, in contemporary terms, for a systematic and philosophically respectable "apology for poetry." The author finds that most of the so-called New Critics agree in rejecting both the "sugar-coated pill" and "l'art pour l'art" views of poetry; their efforts to formulate a workable third view form the basis for his elaboration of the requirements of an acceptable theory, one which will accord with--and do justice to--the unique and irreducible aesthetic (...) experience to which poetry gives rise. The details of such a theory, unfortunately, are never made entirely clear, owing in part to the diverse and often conflicting demands which must be met, but its main points are as follows: poems, though mainly self-contained, their meanings determined contextually rather than referentially, yet "reveal life," "illuminate human experience"; in poetic creation, though the poet's intentions somehow control the outcome, yet the language of the evolving poem itself determines its own final nature; and poetry, though it neither merely instructs or informs nor merely pleases, yet does provide a kind of "truth" and does produce an experience in some sense pleasurable. The strength of Mr. Krieger's study lies in the clarity and force with which he states the various issues, and in the scholarly care with which he examines the views of individual critics. The book, however, lacks tight organization and sustained, clearly directed argumentation, and its final outcome is rather inconclusive.--V. C. C. (shrink)

A highly metaphorical, sometimes rather fanciful examination of the nature of space by a practicing artist whose geometric paintings have attracted wide attention.--V. C. C.

A close study, paragraph by paragraph and often line by line, of a work crucial to the understanding of Heidegger's thought as a whole. M. Wahl is a conscientious reader and careful interpreter; he exhibits a sympathetic understanding of the Heideggerian method while dissenting at various points from its results, particularly as regards the important Seinsfrage. In general, it is suggested, Heiddegger's Einführung is to be taken not as doctrine or a set of conclusions, but as an exercise, like Plato's (...) Parmenides.--V. C. C. (shrink)

Liebe Frau Henry! Soeben bekomme ich Ihren Brief, Die Freude, die mir Ihre Ankündigung macht, veranlaßt mich, Ihnen sofort zu antworten. Sie wissen wohl, daß ich seit Jahren wünsche, Sie möchten Ihre philosophischen Arbeiten fortsetzen und möchten die dafür notwendige Muße finden. Ich weiß nicht, ob Sie wissen, daß ich Sie mehrfach für philosophische Lehrstühle, über deren Besetzung ich unter dem Gesichtspunkt der Naturphilosophie gefragt worden bin, vorgeschlagen habe.

The purpose of this paper is to show through the concrete example of epileptic seizure anticipation how neuro-dynamic analysis and “pheno-dynamic” analysis may guide and determine each other. We will show that this dynamic approach to epileptic seizure makes it possible to consolidate the foundations of a cognitive non pharmacological therapy of epilepsy. We will also show through this example how the neuro-phenomenological co-determination could shed new light on the difficult problem of the “gap” which separates subjective experience from neurophysiological (...) activity. (shrink)

The first two volumes of a four-volume study, destined surely to become the standard work in its field. Literary criticism in the broadest sense is the book's subject, but the author tries to avoid purely philosophical aesthetics at one extreme--Kant is given 3 pages to Schiller's 24--as well as unsubstantiated judgments of taste at the other. Since he tries to see the past as bearing upon and productive of the literary theory of the present, the book might be said to (...) be more an account of the sources and growth of contemporary thinking about literature and criticism than a "history" in the usual sense. Professor Wellek has a rich store of scholarly knowledge at his disposal, and his interpretive generalizations are well supported by references and texts; yet the argument moves easily and clearly. A fine piece of creative scholarship.--V. C. C. (shrink)

A reprint of the English version of Croce's illuminating essays on history and historiography. The Italian edition was published in 1938.--V. C. C.

A straightforward presentation of Plato's views on the nature of mathematics, with special attention to the status of mathematical objects and to the method of mathematical thinking. Mr. Wedberg has summarized his interpretations of Platonic doctrines in a clear and well-organized fashion, devoting one chapter to Plato's views on geometry, one to his views on arithmetic; he then supports these interpretations by a close examination of the relevant passages, not only in Plato's Dialogues, but in Aristotle as well. A comprehensive (...) and useful study.--V. C. C. (shrink)

A collection of essays, German and English, including some not previously published. There are papers on ancient, medieval and modern philosophy as well as a number dealing with problems of contemporary interest, especially in the philosophy of religion. Frank's general position is strongly reminiscent of that of the Existenz philosophers who were his friends, and whom he influenced. A long "Appreciation" by the editor describes Frank's achievement and relates it to the milieu, intellectual and personal, out of which it grew.--V. (...) C. C. (shrink)

In a relaxed and yet persuasive manner, the author relates a number of American writers to sets of Christian beliefs, noting that those whom he regards as orthodox are generally thought today to be greater literary artists than the "heretics"--i.e., those who "ignore Original Sin."--V. C. C.

This instructive work tries to avoid the parochialism and over-technicality characteristic of so much recent theorizing about ethics. The author examines each of the main current accounts of moral goodness and judgment, and then constructs a view of his own in their light--a view predominantly "naturalistic" in its conception of goodness but partially "non-cognitivist" in its treatment of moral judgment. The rest of the book defends and elaborates this view. Mr. Rice writes perceptively, and his accounts of contemporary ethical theories (...) are lucid and concise. His passion for non-technicality, however, makes the presentation of his own view less convincing than it might have been; his argument is sometimes elusive and fragmentary, and his writing, though vivid, often lacks clarity and precision. Still, this is a book of considerable significance; one hopes that it will mark the beginning of a broader, more constructive approach to the problems of ethical theory.--V. C. C. (shrink)

The distinctive feature of this new edition is its inclusion of the handwritten marginal notes in Hegel's own copy of the Rechtsphilosophie. These were published separately by Lasson in 1914 and again in 1930, but have been re-edited for the present volume, with a number of mistakes corrected. A second volume, now in preparation, is to contain a re-edited set of the Zusätze to Hegel's lectures on Rechtsphilosophie, gathered from the notes of his students. The two volumes together will certainly (...) stand as the definitive source of Hegel's teaching in this area for a long time to come.--V. C. C. (shrink)

Mr. Berlin offers, with characteristic brilliance and insight, a compelling indictment of the modern tendency to deny the relevance of moral considerations to history: to minimize the influence of human individuals upon--and their responsibility for--historical events, as well as to eliminate evaluation and moral judgment from the writing of history. History, it is maintained, neither can be nor should try to be "objective," i.e., free from evaluations, in the way that physics is "objective." Mr. Berlin's points are not always clearly (...) organized, but they are sensible and telling; his running critique of the prevalent naive "scientism" of contemporary social scientists is especially effective.--V. C. C. (shrink)

A Sartre sampler, showing the range of its author's interests as well as the subtlety and inventiveness of his thinking. Most of the "literary" essays--seven short pieces on individual authors and books--have a decidedly philosophical turn despite their disjointedness; a discussion of The Sound and the Fury, e.g., becomes an examination of Faulkner's "metaphysics of time." The three philosophical pieces, including the anti-Marxist "Materialism and Revolution," are longer and more systematic. There are also three essays on America, arising out of (...) Sartre's 1945 visit, which are perceptive, fresh, and sometimes profound.--V. C. C. (shrink)

A brief but meaty survey of the immediate background of contemporary Oxford analysis, concentrating chiefly on the rise and fall of Logical Atomism, with some asides on the Logical Positivist movement in England. Mr. Urmson describes pre-Oxford analytic tenets and techniques clearly and fairly, though in rather disorganized fashion, and presents, with considerable force, the arguments brought against them. These arguments are perhaps less destructive than Mr. Urmson himself seems to suppose, nor is it clear that they justify, philosophically, the (...) widespread shift to the Oxford brand of analysis. But the book provides a useful historical explanation of the abandonment by English philosophers of the "reductive" analysis practiced by the atomists and positivists, and of their search for something different.--V. C. C. (shrink)

Ibsen's epic drama rendered, not altogether successfully, into English verse. The idiom is sometimes unnatural and the verse tends to be rigid and sing-song.--V. C. C.

An extended diatribe, largely unintelligible, against idealism, "equalism," Jews, Negroes, Christians, Communists, the U.N., etc. --V. C. C.

Eloquently, and with compelling force, Mr. Perkins argues that a popularly-based foreign policy--in particular that of the United States since 1914--is considerably more successful than some of its distinguished recent critics would have us believe. His faith in democracy is steadfast, and his optimism--which he justifies so convincingly--is reassuring.--V. C. C.

The texts of the papers on the philosophy of science read at the Zürich Congress of 1954. The papers vary widely, in scope, quality, approach, doctrinal basis, and subject matter, but the collection as a whole, if a bit bewildering, provides a good survey of the ways in which the philosophy of science is now being practiced and conceived.--V. C. C.

A reprint edition of a careful argument for the primacy of experiment even in theoretical physics, replete with accounts of actual discoveries, in many of which Born himself participated. The essay, originally a lecture, was first published in 1943. --V. C. C.

A new collection of philosophical journal articles in the contemporary Oxford manner, at least the sixth such collection to appear in the last few years. The twelve papers in the present volume deal with subjects comprised by the Oxford "logic" examinations--e.g., meaning, explanation, validity, probability, and time. All are clear, calm, and careful, and all are illuminating, even if only over a small area. The collection's title is particularly apt; "conceptual analysis" surely better describes what the Oxford philosophers have actually (...) been doing than the imprecise and often misleading "analysis of language."--V. C. C. (shrink)

A survey of the practices and problems of American teachers of philosophy, based upon nearly 350 answers to a comprehensive questionnaire covering courses, curriculum problems, class preparation, grading, professional ethics, and advancement. The report is liberally sprinkled with direct quotations.--V. C. C.

The second new translation-commentary of the Phaedo to appear in a year. Professor Hackforth's translation is not quite so economical and smooth at that of Mr. Bluck --he tends sometimes to prolixity and archaic constructions--but the two versions seem equally accurate. Hackforth's notes are less philosophically assertive than Bluck's, and less systematic; his interpretation of the dialogue generally is more orthodox and less polemical than the latter's. The present edition seems superior as regards the division of the dialogue into chapters, (...) organization of the translation, notes, and commentary, and in the general elegance of its printing and design. But both editions are excellent, and it is hard to choose between them.--V. C. C. (shrink)

The second in a series of scholarly monographs designed to collect and organize source material for the interpretation of the thought of St. Augustine, this work contains a list of the occurrences of the word auctoritas in Augustine's writings, an anthology of representative passages in which it is discussed, and a number of indices.--V. C. C.