It will come as a surprise to many to see a book coming from a contemporary Oxford philosopher claiming to be metaphysical. The author, in the last sentence of the last chapter, justifies his title with the remark: “So if metaphysics is the finding of reasons, good, bad or indifferent, for what we believe on instinct, then this has been metaphysics.” This remark gives us the point of the qualification “descriptive”, which is for Strawson, opposed to “revisionary” when applied to (...) metaphysics. The revisionary metaphysician is trying to produce a better set of basic concepts about the world, the descriptive metaphysician is content to describe “the actual structure of our thought”. (shrink)

Contents: John BURNHEIM: Introduction. Mihály VAJDA: A Lover of Philosophy - A Lover of Europe. Phillippe DESPOIX: On the Possibility of a Philosophy of Values. A Dialogue within the Budapest School. Martin JAY: Women in Dark Times: Agnes Heller and Hannah Arendt. Johann P. ARNASON: The Human Condition and the Modern Predicament. Richard J. BERNSTEIN: Agnes Heller: Philosophy, Rational Utopia and Praxis. Zygmunt BAUMAN: Narrating Modernity. Peter BEILHARZ: Theories of History - Agnes Heller and R.G. Collingwood. Richard WOLIN: Heller's Theory (...) of Everyday Life. Paul HARRISON: Radical Philosophy and the Theory of Modernity. Arthur J. JACOBSON: The Limits of Formal Justice. Peter MURPHY: Civility and Radicalism. Peter MURPHY: Pluralism and Politics. Victoria CAMPS: The Good Life: A Moral Gesture. Laura BOELLA: Philosophy Beyond and the Baseless and Tragic Character of Action. György MÁRKUS: The Politics of Morals. Agnes HELLER: A Reply to My Critics. The Bibliography of Agnes Heller. (shrink)

Whitehead had an extraordinary capacity for inventing new concepts and getting beyond accepted categories. Even after nearly thirty years Process and Reality remains almost as baffling as the day it was published, and the task of evaluating its complex metaphysics has barely been begun. There are so many loose ends and apparent contradictions in it that it is very tempting to dismiss it as mere undisciplined speculation, suggestive perhaps, but of no great value as a system. Still, there is no (...) doubt that Whitehead had the capacity for sustained analysis, and it remains possible that he has not been understood. Mr. Lawrence has simplified the first steps towards a better understanding of these complex doctrines, and given us sufficient glimpses of what lies ahead to make it appear worthwhile persevering. (shrink)

Professor Kroner presents an aspect of Kant’s thought which receives comparatively little attention in most English works on Kant. His interpretation is that of the so-called Heidleberg school, which lays great emphasis on the moral and religious aspects of Kant’s thought, taking its epistemological aspects as essentially subservient to a wider context which explains their fundamental meaning. The present work is short and synoptic. It presents an overall picture, without arguing details of interpretation. Like most other attempts to arrive at (...) the “ultimate intention” of a philosophical system, Professor Kroner’s interpretation of Kant seems to base itself rather on the cultural, emotional and practical significance of the doctrines he favours than on their claims to objective truth. For example, he tells us that “nature is phenomenal because it is nothing but the material of the moral will…because man as a moral person is never permitted to derive his ultimate ends from nature”. It is difficult to see that this means anything more than: the doctrine that nature is phenomenal is commendable because it has these desirable consequences. (shrink)

Some of Lord Russell’s most interesting writings have until now remained hidden in the pages of rare periodicals. Professor Marsh has done a considerable service to students of contemporary British philosophy in making them readily available. Although most of these essays present neither Russell’s present views nor the views most commonly held at the present time, they do contain arguments and opinions which have had a great influence on the development of current philosophical thinking, either because they continue to go (...) uncriticised or because of the reactions they have provoked. This is especially true of the series of articles “The Philosophy of Logical Atomism’, which, Russell tells us, “are very largely concerned with explaining certain ideas which I learnt from my friend and former pupil Ludwig Wittgenstein.’ Much of Wittgenstein’s later writing is intelligible only as a criticism of this interpretation of his doctrine. Quite apart from this, these articles contain some of Russell’s keenest thinking. Other articles of interest from a doctrinal point of view are “On the Relation of Universals and Particulars”, “On Propositions: what they are and how they mean” and “On Order in Time”. Two technical articles, “The Logic of Relations” and “Mathematical Logic as Based on the Theory of Types” retain considerable value for the specialist. The book is very well produced. (shrink)

Mary Wyman sets out to show the affinity between the philosophy of Whitehead and the views of a large number of poets, including certain Chinese mystics, Goethe, Emerson, Whitman, and Wordsworth. That there are such affinities is, of course, well-known and the author does succeed in elaborating them in a thorough and often interesting manner. The danger in such works is a too-systematic and superficial interpretation of one author in terms of another. It is perhaps the greatest merit of her (...) book that Miss Wyman is aware of this danger and constantly strives to avoid it. (shrink)

This is a very good and important book: good as a piece of philosophical exposition, important because of its subject-matter. The quality of the author’s writing reminds one of Gilson, whom he often quotes. Dr. Leclerc has the two qualities most admired in Gilson, lucidity and a capacity for bringing out the distinctive characters of the doctrines he discusses. The great temptation of the expositor is to reduce an original theory to terms, either of ordinary language or of some other (...) theory, in which the differences between one philosopher and another are reduced to matters of emphasis, or of arbitrary decision between a priori alternatives. The only satisfactory way of expounding any worthwhile philosophy is to give life and clarity to its own characteristic terms and ways of argument. (shrink)