The author, in outlining his theory of democracy, presents, with commendable logic of sequence, his views on the nature and scope of democracy, its presuppositions, its instruments, its conditions, its justification, and its prospects. Carey McWilliams, editor of The Nation, has called this book "by all odds the finest modern exploration of the subject by an American." From the standpoint of clarity, vigor, and good sense, that accolade is deserved. While not ranking as a seminal book or one that hoes (...) its ground with pioneering originality, it brilliantly molds into an unshakable structure an extensive amassment of stones, large and small, quarried diligently and judiciously from the tests of time and polished so as to smooth away ambiguities and other imperfections. Keystone of the structure is the definition, in which every word is expertly honed, "Democracy is that system of community government in which, by and large, the members of the community participate, or may participate, directly or indirectly, in the making of decisions which affect them all." The implications of this definition are meticulously studied in chapter after chapter, and Cohen presents at the end a "note on the future of democracy" in which, eschewing pessimism or optimism, he urges concerned citizens to do what is possible to improve the conditions which can make democracy effective.—W. G. (shrink)

"The intent of this book," according to the author, "is to document the existence in man of two major modes of consciousness: one is analytic, the other holistic." They are sometimes called, he observes, "the ‘rational’ and ‘intuitive’ sides of man." In this connection, he adduces Roger Bacon’s apposite dictum: "There are two modes of knowing, those of argument and experience." A notable recent finding on the brain correlates of reason and intuition is summarized in the present book as follows: (...) "The left hemisphere of the cortex, which subtends language and mathematics, seems to process information in a linear, sequential manner... The right side of the cortex processes its input more as a ‘patterned whole'." That is, science, for example, uses the left side of the brain, while nonrational meditation exercises, procedures for expansion and concentration of consciousness, and the mystic experience, for example, involve the right side. The author sympathetically describes and analyzes a large variety of meditation methods as illustrating the intuitive path to knowledge, reports pertinent findings on biofeedback phenomena and other scientific grapplings with awareness disciplines and nonattachment systems, and concludes with a plea to scientific psychologists to train themselves rigorously in esoteric techniques. He also suggests, à propos of the "unitive" character of the mystic experience: "A shift toward a consciousness of the interconnectedness of life... might enable us to take those ’selfless’ steps that could begin to solve our collective problems." For philosophers who are open-minded on other ways of studying or making contact with reality than controlled observation, analysis, induction, theory-making, verification, and revision, this book should prove useful, both because it provides a rich collection of data and because it suggests directions for achieving a synoptic view.—W. G. (shrink)