Among questions receiving attention in this symposium of twenty-seven spokesmen of large organizations are these: What are the consequences, for discerning and acting upon values and responsibilities, of the complexity of today's public and private organizations? How are a man's duties and ethical alternatives affected by the fact that he is an administrator in a big corporate, academic, governmental, religious, or military institution? The perennial tension between democracy and efficiency in organizational decision-making is also amply documented. Almost every contributor refers (...) several devastating counter-instances to any simple formal procedure, utilitarian or idealist, for deciding among ethical options faced by the executive. But the conclusion, that there is no method applicable in all situations wherein choice is to be based on the ethical merits of the candidates alone, is less astonishing than the frequency with which it is drawn.--W. H. C. (shrink)

Discussions range from the paradoxes of Zeno to Heidegger's conception of truth, with greatest emphasis on Hegel. The questioning is always meticulous without being pedantic. Whether dealing with an individual thinker or a problem in the history of ideas, Koyre enters into a dialogue which brings his subject to life in a compelling way.--W. H. C.

In this preface to his recent Critique de La Raison Dialectique, Sartre poses, and outlines an answer to, the question of the Critique, "Do we have today the means to constitute a structural, historical anthropology?" Distinguishing between "true" Marxism and that of Garaudy, Lefebvre, Lukacs and others, he accuses his contemporaries of explaining historical events by a rationalistic and fatalistic scientism in which the concrete existing subject gets lost. This un-Marxian "sclerosis" of Marxist concepts, says Sartre, is what accounts for (...) the prominence of existentialism; once Marxist anthropology recovers its "human foundation" in the comprehension of existence, existentialism will be re-absorbed within the sought-for method. Convinced that "true" Marxism does not consider human existence to be merely an economic-historical event, Sartre is not aware that the envisioned anthropology may transform Marxism more than existentialism.--W. H. C. (shrink)

The eleven papers comprising this book were read at two Bergson Centennial celebrations in 1959--at Hollins College and in Paris. From Pelikan's discussion of Bergson's place in theology to Merleau-Ponty's account of his view of history, the contributions lay bare many more enigmas in Bergson's relation to subsequent thought than they solve. Starkie's paper on the literary merits and impact of the work of Bergson makes such a compelling case for its kinship to Symbolism and Proust that one is tempted (...) to accept the thesis that the Bergsonian Heritage is most alive in those who are not philosophers. Contains a bibliography of books and articles by and on Bergson.--W. H. C. (shrink)

The scope and length of this anthology make it one of the best recent introductions to Continental thought for the English-speaking reader. Despite the editor's efforts to compass a century and a half of European thought under the somewhat inflated title of a "search for being," each of the fourteen contributors is allowed enough space to show that no single problem or quest concretely typifies European philosophical activity in our time. If one overlooks the dramatic cutting and pasting required by (...) the attempt to give an existential flavor to the thinkers, one finds the merit of the book to be precisely the inclusion of authors whose interests are in important respects quite divergent from those of the existentialists. There are new, long translations from Schelling, Ravaisson, Lachelier, Simmel, Husserl, and Heidegger. There is a selected bibliography.--W. H. C. (shrink)