A persistent criticism of Edmund Husserl’s transcendental phenomenology is that it begs the question of its own possibiIity as science. In this essay I propose a reading of Husserl which addresses this question and attempts to show that the phenomenological ideal of freedom from all presuppositions, that is, the ideal of radical methodological autonomy, is not dogmatically assumed as valid but rests on a conception of philosophy which, although not explicitly formulated by Husserl, nevertheless informs his thinking on questions of (...) method and, ultimately, the nature of science. According to this conception, phiIosophy, phenomenological or otherwise, is not sui generis the ground of is own possibiIity but is derived from the logic of experience itself and so is immanent to conscious, intentional life in all of its manifold occupations and interests. That is, experience ultimately fulfills itself not in the accumulation of objective facts but in its continued faithfulness to the idea of a more perfect knowledge. Thus, in the end, I hope to show that the question of the status and possibiIity of phenomenological philosophy is not of interest to phenomenologists alone but addresses the enterprise of philosophy itself. (shrink)

Inspired with Jude P. Dougherty’s works in which he stresses the overruling importance of the classical, humanistic education and the central place and role of religion in the Western culture, the author presents Christopher Dawson’s analysis of the Western civilization and his demonstration of the central role of Christianity in it. The author traces the premises on which was based Dawson’s opinion that modern Western man might be absorbed by his technical inventions, to the point of losing his soul.

With a view to the theme of church renewal, this article explores the role of a well-known and popular phrase in the Reformed tradition within Protestantism, that is, ecclesia reformata semper reformanda [‘the reformed church should always be reformed’]. Is this a helpful slogan when considering the possibilities and the limitations of church renewal? Firstly, the historical background of this phrase is described: it is rooted in the Dutch Reformed tradition, and only in the 20th century it was widely recognised (...) in Reformed circles. Against this background the hermeneutical problem, linked with the principle of sola Scriptura, is presented, and put into an ecumenical ecclesiological perspective: the church is grounded in the gospel. Finally, the article focuses on church polity as an important field of renewal, taking into account Karl Barth’s interpretation of this phrase. From this perspective, a balanced and ecumenical approach of church renewal is possible. (shrink)

With this collection of translations of Aristotle’s main works, accompanied by commentaries, General Editors J. L. Ackrill and Lindon Judson have made another step forward. In book 8 of the Physics, Aristotle develops his doctrine of the First Unmoved Mover, the efficient cause of all movements and process in the world. It is commonly agreed upon that this book constitutes a unit with books 2 to 6. It is later than the other books and the greater part of the De (...) caelo. (shrink)

This attractive but difficult study begins with an avowal: Korff purposively writes against Kierkegaard. His main thesis is that the Danish philosopher beguiled himself in stating his relationship with Regina, the girl he had promised to marry, in terms of his relation to God. Kierkegaard played with her, using her for his poetical endeavors and philosophical reflections. Korff is not slow to point out a certain inversion of the normal in Kierkegaard's conception of love and his incapacity really to love (...) someone. Breaking up his relation with Regina as well as this attempt to transpose it to a spiritual level of a mystical betrothal with God, gave Kierkegaard the feeling of being free again. Korff sharply criticizes Kierkegaard's comparison of his "sacrifice" with the sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham : "Kierkegaard is less moved by religious seriousness than by the fascination of his own dialectic". He creates a representation of God according to his subjective feelings and dialectical needs of the moment. (shrink)

This is an interesting and useful book with essays by Lewis White Beck, Ernst Cassierer, Hermann Cohen, Richard Hönigswald, Hansgeorg Hoppe, Edmund Husserl, Ram Adhar Mall, Jeffrie G. Murphy, Alois Riehl, Wolfgang Stegmüller, Martha E. Williams. All thirteen essays or notes reprinted concern the relationship between Hume and Kant. Its publication follows the 200th anniversary of the appearance of the Kritik der reinen Vernunft. Common to both philosophers is the view that scientific knowledge depends on the knowledge of man. In (...) a long introduction the editor briefly recalls Hume's place in the history of philosophy. Turning to Kant he points out that Kant realized that if we take Hume's view of causality seriously, it cannot but lead to scepticism. Thus he felt obliged to look for a foundation of the sciences in the trans-subjective structure of the human mind. However, Kant never became an empiricist, but still subscribed to what Russell called a "pre-Humean rationalism." Nevertheless there is a convergence between both philosophers: Hume feels that one cannot go beyond the presence of percepts in one's own consciousness. Now Kant is equally convinced that our theoretical knowledge is limited to appearances. What lies beyond the appearances--das Ding an sich--cannot be reached. (shrink)

In previous issues of The Review of Metaphysics attention has been drawn to the project of Professor Richard Sorabji to publish the English translations of the ancient Greek commentators of Aristotle. We are happy to present a new volume of this series which contains the English translation of the commentary by Alexander of Aphrodisias on Aristotle’s Prior Analytics, I, chapters 8–13. In his preface Professor Sorabji underlines the importance of Alexander’s commentary on these chapters, in which Aristotle invented modal syllogistic. (...) This volume comprises the commentary on chapters 8 to 13. Chapters 1, 2, and 4 to 7 contain Aristotle’s assertoric syllogistic. For Alexander’s commentary on these chapters the translators refer to the excellent edition of Jonathon Barnes, et al. In chapters 8 to 13 Aristotle studies syllogisms which consist of two necessary propositions and those which are composed of one necessary proposition and a second which is modally unqualified. The central question is which modal syllogisms, analogous to assertoric syllogisms of the first figure, are true syllogisms. The translators have added Alexander’s commentary on chapter 17, where it is argued that a privative contingent proposition cannot be converted into a syllogism of the first figure. (shrink)

In the past fifty years a number of studies on Aristotle’s biology have appeared in English. The proceedings of a symposium held in Germany are a welcome contribution to our knowledge of Aristotle’s work in this field.

In this volume Mueller and Gould present the translation of Alexander’s commentary on chapters 14–22 of the first book of the Prior Analytics. These chapters deal with modal logic as applied to contingent propositions and to combinations of unqualified premises and of one assertoric proposition. In the 58 page introduction Professor Mueller presents first a survey of Aristotle’s assertoric syllogistic to turn next to combinations with a contingent premise in the three figures. He then passes to modal syllogistic without contingency. (...) Modal syllogistic can be understood as an extension of assertoric syllogistic. Aristotle seeks to determine which modal propositions related to first figure assertoric syllogisms are true syllogisms. The translation of Alexander’s text is excellent. (shrink)

Metaphysics, formerly the queen of science, fell into oblivion under the onslaught of empiricism and positivism and its very possibllity came to be denied. Professor Elders traces the history of this process and shows how St. Thomas innovated in determining both the subject of metaphysics and the manner in which one enters this science, particularly in the framework of his Aristotle commentaries. The work then considers being and its properties, its divisions into being in act and being in potency, into (...) the act of being essence, and into substance and the accidents. Finally the causes of being are considered. The work also introduces and surveys the extensive literature of Thomas interpretation of the past 50 years. (shrink)

For some years Yearly has devoted himself to the study of the comparative philosophy of religion and is now convinced of the importance of this kind of study: it enriches us because it makes us attentive to certain aspects of a work we had previously overlooked; it shows how pervasively we are tied to a particular culture; and it helps develop those abilities that allow us to appreciate different visions of the world.

This thorough study in the field of the philosophy of history was accepted as a Habilitationsschrift. There is, however, a problem with this type of book: the author is supposed to give a display of his learning and mastery of the entire literature on the subject. As a result, the style and wording may become pedantic.

Urbanas's intention is to clarify the status and function of the accident in Aristotle's logic and metaphysics. Given the importance of the accidental and the accident and the variety of ways in which the term is used in Aristotle's works, this is a most welcome study.

The study of Plotinus's Enneads is beset with difficulties. In this book, Bussanich examines nine important passages from books 3, 5, and 6 on the relation of the One to the Intellect. The passages are relatively short but provide material for a detailed philological and philosophical commentary.

It is always difficult to present a collection of essays, and this the more so if written by twenty-eight authors. However, this imposing and beautifully printed volume has been planned very carefully, so that the various contributions create a fairly complete study of Aquinas’s thought in the Second Part of the Summa theologica. The essays have approximately the same length and are accompanied by numerous scholarly endnotes. L. E. Boyle recalls that St. Thomas’s intention was to connect moral theology to (...) dogmatics, the Second Part being foremost in his mind. It did indeed capture the attention of the students of his order. S. Pinckaers gives a fine survey of the sources used by Thomas in the I-II and brings out the place of the auctoritates in theology. S. J. Pope presents a compact summary of the contents of the Second Part but does not consider its relation to the Commentary on the Nicomachean Ethics. (shrink)

The Physics is a most remarkable work, and profoundly influenced Medieval Philosophers. Thomas Aquinas wrote a detailed, impressive commentary. This essay studies in particular the composition of the Physics as Thomas saw it, his thorough study of Aristotle’s way of arguing and the important distinction he made between disputative arguments, which are only partially true, and arguments which determine the truth. Aristotle frequently uses proofs which are wrong when one considers the proper nature of bodies, but possible considering their common (...) nature. Thomas accepts proofs in the field of physics but discards those related to a certain mathematization of nature. Aristotle holds the unlimited possibility of movements becoming faster or slower, but according to Aquinas he is considering things in general : when we consider specific bodies there is a fastest movement. Thomas speaks of a way of reading a text which is according the intention of Aristotle, and proposes an understanding of particular texts based on the general doctrine of the Stagirite. Sometimes he goes beyond the text, as when defending the unity of time as dependent on the unity of the First Mover. The essay shows that in the commentary a coherent philosophy of nature shaping up. In some places Aquinas brings in God’s causality: nature is nothing else but the plan of divine art, placed within things. The study of nature shows that there is a first principle of the whole nature which is above everything, sc. God who gives being to things. (shrink)

This edition of Michael Scot’s Latin translation of Aristotle’s De partibus animalium is part of a vast project, under the supervision of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, to publish the Syriac, Arabic, and Hebrew translations of Aristotle’s works, of the Latin translations of these works, and of the medieval paraphrases and commentaries made in the context of this translation tradition. After a general introduction, the Latin text is presented, followed by a good number of excellent notes, an (...) Index latino-arabus, an Index of proper names of animals and an Index arabo-latinus. This is followed by an Index of the Greek names of plants and animals. (shrink)

Modern versions of utilitarianism have been called consequentialism: in order to evaluate the goodness or badness of human actions one must consider—in one way or in another—their consequences. This consequentialism appears to be opposed on many counts to traditional natural law ethics: norms such as one should never kill innocent persons and never commit adultery stand in conflict with a view which holds that in some cases good results may outweigh the bad consequences of such and other actions. In the (...) years of the Second Vatican Council and the following period, several moralists began to use a somewhat weakened form of consequentialism called proportionalism, which came to be accepted by a good number of authors. It aims at determining the moral rightness or wrongness of actions not by their “material character” but by considering circumstances, intentions, and results, presenting itself as a revolutionary revision of natural law ethics since, in situations of conflict, it wants to free us from “the tyranny” of the “material object” of our actions. Proportionalism distinguishes between premoral disvalues or evil and moral values. The former are the things we want to do for our well-being or convenience and, as proportionalists assert, have no absolute character, while the latter are the ends we pursue in given circumstances. If there is a proportion between the premoral disvalues of our acts and the ends or consequences achieved, the acts are good. (shrink)

There are readers of Aquinas’s works, but Penguin’s surpasses all by its sheer size, the very representative choice of texts, the excellent translations, and scholarly, informative introductions. McInerny chose to present his selection in a chronological order, allowing the persevering reader to witness St. Thomas at work in Paris, Italy, again in Paris, and in Naples. In the introduction, the reader finds a survey of Thomas’s life, pertinent remarks on the relationship of philosophy and theology, on Thomas and Aristotelianism, and (...) an enumeration of some key Aristotelian doctrines. “In learning from Aristotle Thomas does not of course think of himself as conforming his mind to another’s, but rather as conforming his mind to the way things are”. McInerny also mentions the controversies after Thomas’s death and the revival of Thomistic studies. (shrink)

This learned book is a study of the fifteen questions of the first part of Aquinas’s Summa theologiae which deal with man as composed of body and soul, his faculties, and place in the universe. In twelve chapters Pasnau takes us from the theme of body and soul and the immateriality of the soul to closing pages on life after death. His philosophical approach of texts of a theological work have their justification in that “the real heart of Aquinas’s theological (...) project corresponds quite closely with what we consider the project of philosophy”, a claim which, although substantially correct, might be worded better, because the heart of Aquinas’s theology lies way beyond philosophy. Pasnau tries to explain Thomas’s texts acutely, raising the difficulties a modern reader would experience when hearing of these doctrines for the first time. The book is lively and stimulating, displaying acquaintance with many issues. (shrink)

This is an important book. It consists of twenty-one essays, sixteen of which have not been published before, and sheds light on two of the most difficult points in the Poetics, imitation and catharsis. The order in which the papers are presented has been carefully chosen, so that the overall impression is that of a certain unity of interpretation. In this review we can only bring out a few of the more salient statements of the book.

Throughout his life Karl Rahner wrote on saints in the church, both official (canonized) and unofficial. This essay first considers his major essays from the conciliar period, focusing on the question why and how we can existentially venerate the saints and drawing on his theology of God as Holy Mystery, Christ as redeeming Mediator between humanity and God, and the unity of the love of God and of the neighbor. A second section recalls earlier writings such as “The Church of (...) Sinners’ (1947) and “The Church of the Saints” (1955) that anticipated his mature position. Later developments in his thought are then considered, with special attention to his fuller use of the concept of solidarity in its ontological and theological depth. Finally Rahner’s original diagnosis of the relationship of believers to their saints is tested against more recent developments in devotion to the saints. (shrink)

David Bostock revisits Aristotle’s theory of matter which was already discussed in some papers of volume 1. He warns the reader that Aristotle would have been surprised by the explanations some propose of his doctrine. Prime matter is, in the first place, the stuff the four elements are made of ; the elements function in their turn as matter for still higher things. Bostock believes that there are several ultimate kinds of matter which cannot change into one another. The atoms (...) would be the basic elements of the bodies, a function fulfilled by matter according to Aristotle. Obviously Bostock does not distinguish between substantial and accidental reality. In a fine paper Gottfried Heinemann explains the sense of such terms as “nature,” “matter,” and “craft” in Aristotle. He attempts to approach matter not from the ontological point of view as a potential component of being, but as that which is used in artifacts. From there it comes to mean what underlies the coming-to-being of natural things. (shrink)

This is a delightful book which tries to solve the puzzle of Nicomachean Ethics 5.5: did Aristotle make a contribution to economic theory or are his statements without significance? Meikle argues that what Aristotle does in this chapter is analyze a property of things, namely their exchange value. Such things as houses, horses, beds are not really commensurable, but the degree to which people need them is. Their value in money is the conventional representation of this need. However, Aristotle has (...) no theory of economic value. He regards the development of exchange as part of the emergence of the polis from the family and the village. The breeding of money from money is unnatural. Aristotle is concerned about the invasion of the whole political and ethical life by the pursuit of money. Those who condemn this position overlook that the criticism is aimed at the effect money has on the arts when they are pursued for the sake of it. While Marx endorses most of Aristotle’s conclusions, Schumpeter rejected the view that exchange values cannot be expressed in terms of use values. For Aristotle, exchange value is intrinsic; for positivists it is extrinsic. Meikle sides with Aristotle. He also defends Politics 1.5, a chapter which has often been dismissed as a muddle. Aristotle’s analysis of exchange value is a great achievement. The Stagirite investigated the conceptual problems that arise when one tries to define exchange value. How do things which are incommensurable become commensurable in exchange? (shrink)

In this lengthy and learned study the author shows that in the time of Aquinas there existed already a highly developed philosophy of language. In particular the theory of the modus significandi made a breakthrough in the last part of the thirteenth century.

The author sees his scholarly book as a contribution to the “remarkable resurgence of interest in Aristotle’s moral and political philosophy.” Despite the difficulty of integrating the various parts of the Nicomachean Ethics into a harmonious doctrine, Tessitore defends the cogency of the text. In five chapters he deals with several of the main topics studied by Aristotle. The Ethics is addressed to morally serious persons. The second chapter discusses the virtues treated in books 2–7. Special attention is paid to (...) equity and prudence. Tessitore sees book 7 as a new beginning, namely, the study of human behavior from the point of view of opposites. Human beings sometimes act in ways they know to be wrong. Tessitore speaks of a “continuous war between right principle and pleasure,” but Aristotle would say that the really virtuous person is no longer attracted by the lower pleasures. So when the author writes that book 7 is disconcerting: “the activity of God is wholly given over to pleasure”, we answer that it all depends on the sort of pleasure we are speaking about. Chapter 4 deals with friendship, which holds society together and is an important element of human happiness. Human activity is increased when one shares one’s life and experiences with others. Tessitore explains in which sense right self-love is the proper basis for friendship and social life. He considers books 8 and 9 an introduction to the best way of life. Book 10 brings a new description of pleasure which is now said to perfect or complete activity. Contemplation is presented as the supreme form of happiness, a conclusion which is “oddly out of step with the rest of Aristotle’s study”. Tessitore explains this: in the previous books of his treatise, Aristotle has kept this argument in the background, but he now shows that ethical excellence must somehow come together with philosophical contemplation. (shrink)

A study of Aristotle's use of the "prior" and the "posterior" is most welcome, since it is likely to shed some light on his position with regard to Platonism. Nicomachean Ethics 1096a17-19 intimates that in Plato's view the pair "prior and posterior" belongs to the world of becoming and mutually dependent things. Cleary believes that its use by Aristotle is closely related to the latter's philosophical development. He hopes to discover, in the course of his study, the original set of (...) circumstances which made Aristotle embark upon his theory of these terms. To this effect Cleary examines the main texts of the Aristotelian corpus in which they occur. (shrink)

The thesis of Méndez is preceded by a preface by Cornelio Fabro, who explains the design of this important dissertation: the author gives a presentation of the metaphysics of Aquinas such as he sees it laid down in the Summa contra gentiles. He does so from the viewpoint of the doctrine of participation.

In this pleasantly written book Carter describes what he considers to be the core of Japanese ethics by recalling the influence of Shintoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Zen Buddhism. Drawing heavily on certain Japanese authors, he points to such fundamental categories as man, nothingness, sincerity, family. Finally he develops the theme of enlightenment. From the very start Carter stresses the pre-ego state of compassionate awareness and the resolve to interfere minimally with the natural world characteristic of the Japanese. The oneness of (...) things is the theme which runs like a red thread through the entire book, a monism which abandons the opposition between the ego and the world and between good and evil. Evil is the substantializing of the ego. Carter himself turned to the East to find a way out of the problems besetting Western societies. (shrink)