1942: Philosophy

Effects of the War.

The steady encroachment of the war upon civilian, educational, and scholarly activities brought about a noticeable reduction in the number and quality of books on philosophical subjects published in 1942. But despite the deepening shadows of the war all major philosophical journals in the United States and in England continued to appear with regularity. Though articles and books dealing with the moral and spiritual aspects of the world crisis were naturally on the increase, interest in the more theoretical problems, both traditional and ultra-modern, continued unabated.

On the other hand, there has not been an important original philosophical work out of Germany, France, or Italy in the last two years. The occasional books and monographs which still do appear, as may be gathered from reviews in Swiss newspapers and periodicals, fall roughly into three classes: (1) Dissertations on subjects sufficiently technical and theoretical to be safely remote from the war, thus avoiding entanglements with the several ministers of culture and propaganda; (2) monographs on moral, political, and social problems, written at the propaganda level, aiming to provide philosophical justification for the ideologies and practices of Nazi-Fascism; (3) a limited number of studies, appearing for the most part in Switzerland, either subtly or more or less directly attacking the moral and political doctrines of Fascism.

Philosophy in Central and South America.

The growing vigor of philosophy in Central and South America was again apparent, although philosophy in those regions still moves for the most part within the orbits of several leading European traditions, those of Spain, France, and Germany predominating. The influence of German phenomenology, transmitted especially through the writings of Martin Heidegger was apparent in Argentina and Mexico, while the political, social, and historical critiques of Ortega y Gasset were causing a ferment in Spanish-speaking university groups. On the other hand, the democratic pluralism of William James was also exerting an important influence on Mexican philosophic thought through the work of Professor Antonio Caso.

Moral and Spiritual Causes of War.

The effort to analyze the moral and spiritual causes of the war inspired many tracts and books, which concurred in affirming the fundamentals of democratic faith while interpreting that faith in various ways. One of the most comprehensive efforts to come to grips with these problems was W. T. Stace's The Destiny of Western Man. He raises the question whether our Greco-Christian civilization is really superior to the so-called new order which the totalitarian powers are seeking to impose on the world. Dr. Stace concludes that the struggle to maintain democratic institutions is justified by the nature of man, for the democratic way alone can maintain the spiritual health of societies and provide the maximum satisfaction for individuals. T. V. Smith in his Discipline for Democracy examines the problems of democracy from within by exploring the nature of science, art, and politics in a democratic society. Science he characterizes as 'the strategy of agreement' among seekers of truth; art as the double discipline of intuition and technical dexterity; politics as the collective discipline by which the absolutes of private conviction are compromised into public policy.

Future World Conditions.

A glance into a future world dedicated to the furtherance of the ideals of scientific humanism was provided in Oliver L. Reiser's A New Earth and a New Humanity. In marked contrast to this faith in a secular and scientific religion of humanity was the growing revival of various forms of authoritarian Christian theism. The general tone of the annual Conference on Science, Philosophy, and Religion in Their Relation to the Democratic Way of Life was distinctly anti-humanistic. Protestant theologians no less than Catholic vied with each other in affirming the need for an hierarchy of absolute values sustained by a transcendent God. Still another demand for a new society, based this time upon a universal but secular faith in absolutes, was contained in Alexander Meiklejohn's Education between Two Worlds. He pleads simultaneously for unity and diversity in social life and calls for a new compelling faith which is to provide the foundation of a world-wide community. That new faith, he holds, is now striving to be born out of the disintegrated world of pluralism and relativism.

German Philosophical Traditions in Light of War.

Among the books which reexamined German philosophical traditions in the light of the war were Herbert Marcuse's Reason and Revolution — Hegel and the Rise of Social Theory, and Rohan D'O. Butler's The Intellectual Roots of National Socialism. The former focuses attention on Hegel's social and political doctrines and explores the various schools which developed in reaction to Hegel. After pointing out both the liberal and reactionary elements in Hegel's thought, Marcuse concludes that National Socialism owes nothing to Hegel or to German idealism, but has been undergirded instead by anti-Hegelian positivists bent on the destruction of moral norms. Butler passes in review most of the leading German intellectuals from the 17th to the 20th century, and concludes that National Socialism is intellectually attributable to the failure on the part of German thinkers to produce a valid, practical conception of community. The vacuum thus left was filled by dynamic and irrational conceptions of the nation and German destiny. In Butler's view the philosophers are made to bear at least a portion of the blame for this development.

Philosophy of Religion.

In the philosophy of religion the outstanding work was John Laird's Theism and Cosmology, the first series of Gifford Lectures on the general subject 'Metaphysics and Theism.' The author approaches his subject naturalistically and realistically, and examines theism chiefly in the physical context of time and space, contingency, teleology and design, and creation. He argues that a non-temporal transcendent deity could neither create nor sustain the changing universe, and concludes, therefore, that God is both immanent and extended. A similar argument forms the case of Man's Vision of God and the Logic of Theism, by Charles Hartshorne. After a critique of some traditional theistic dogmas, he develops a conception of God in terms of a suffering, temporal, perfectible being. Less metaphysical in content was Radoslav Tsanoff's Religious Crossroads which emphasized the dynamic, self-renewing power of religious faith. Indian religious philosophy was represented by Studies in Philosophy and Religion by Kumar Maitra.

Metaphysics and Epistemology.

There was a noteworthy dearth of outstanding books in the fields of general metaphysics and epistemology. Positivism, especially in its analytical logical form, remained the most vigorous and active school of thought, though the mounting volume of criticism from within and without is making positivists more circumspect and less dogmatic and sanguine than was the case five years ago. Though the year saw no significant books in the field of epistemology, logic and methods, excepting perhaps Rudolf Carnap's Introduction to Semantics, many lively discussions appeared in the journals several of which are devoted exclusively to articles in these related fields of interest. To the 'Library of Living Philosophers' which already includes volumes on and by Dewey, Whitehead and Santayana, was added, at the year's end, a volume dealing with the philosophy of Prof. G. E. Moore, England's most prominent analytical philosopher who is currently teaching in the United States. The work of Prof. Moore has been in part assimilated to contemporary positivism, although his realism in the field of values and his trenchant critique of naturalism in ethics sets him apart.

One of the few books in general metaphysics appearing in 1942 was S. C. Pepper's World Hypotheses — A Study in Evidence. The author attempts the description and analysis of six basic hypotheses about the nature of things. Having rejected dogmatism at the beginning, the argument ends in the recognition of four independent but defective hypotheses, namely, formism, mechanism, contextualism, and organicism. In marked contrast with the naturalism of this book is Canon Nys' work on Cosmology — the Philosophical Study of the Inorganic World. The past three or four years have witnessed a growing assertiveness on the part of orthodox Catholic philosophers in America. The work of Canon Nys, now appearing as an abridged English translation of the French original published several years ago, is typical of contemporary orthodox Catholic philosophy. Canon Nys finds the principles of scholastic philosophy to be in essential agreement with the findings of modern science, but judges the various mechanistic theories to be inadequate as final explanations of natural phenomena. The author, in characteristic neo-scholastic fashion, relies unquestioningly on the principles of Thomistic philosophy.

Social and Educational Philosophy.

In the field of social philosophy appeared R. M. MacIver's Social Causation. The author argues that causality is a simple and primary category, that social causation is by its very nature different from other types, and that, therefore, social studies must employ methods of inquiry distinct from those used in the natural sciences. Other books of more than passing interest in this general field were Roscoe Pound's Social Control through Law, and Sociology of Law by Georges Gurvitch.

A report made by a committee on the Teaching of Philosophy concluded that philosophers have made a regrettably small contribution in the teaching of the Philosophy of Education. Among the reasons given were the tendency of philosophers to become esoteric, technical and neutral, and to disclaim all responsibility for the application of philosophy to the problems of education. The report asserts: 'Look through the index of any American textbook in the philosophy of education today, and you will find the names of few, if any, American philosophers besides James and Dewey. Most of our guild have been indifferent ...'

The difficulties occasioned by travel in wartime caused the cancellation of virtually all philosophical meetings held at year's end, among them the First Inter-American Congress of Philosophy, which was to have been held at Columbia University in December.