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.

1941: Philosophy

Effects of War.

The deepening shadows of World War II all but blotted out evidence of philosophic activity in all countries excepting England and America. There has not been an important original philosophical work out of Germany in several years. The occasional monographs on scattered topics which still appear, though with diminishing frequency, fall roughly into two classes: (1) Dissertations on subjects which are safely removed from the issues of the present conflict and scrupulously avoid any dangerous entanglements: (2) Monographs on social, moral or political questions, the authors of which take occasion to seek philosophical justification for the Nazi ideology in some of the great systems of the past. Italy's situation, which is not much better, declined sharply during 1941. The outstanding philosophical journal in Italy, Rivista di Filosofia, suspended publication by order of the Minister of Popular Culture, 'in view of the present exceptional conditions in the life of the nation.' The appearance of the English translation of Croce's latest book under the title History as the Story of Liberty, published in Italy in 1938, was a reminder of freer days of Italian philosophy and a tribute to the courage of Italy's foremost philosopher, who has not made terms with the Fascist régime. The History is not, however, a forthright criticism of the present plight of liberty, but takes the long view, Hegelian-fashion, and reaffirms faith in the ultimate triumph of liberty.

The war seems, for the time being, to have all but eclipsed philosophy in France. One hopeful note was the renewed publication of Etudes Philosophiques. It is symbolic that in 1941 the event of outstanding importance in French philosophy was the death of her most distinguished philosopher, Henri Bergson, at the age of 81 years. Bergson exemplified all powers for which French thought is famous: deftness and brilliance of style, versatility, clarity, subtlety and penetration. During his influential career he fertilized ideas in literature, art, science, philosophy and religion. Bergson's thought was a subtle blending of old and new; he was not wholly uncongenial to Catholic philosophy, while at the same time he was the reluctant intellectual rallying point for several ultra-modern tendencies in the arts. Bergson was a professor at the College de France, a member of the French Academy, head of the International Commission for Intellectual Collaboration founded after World War I, and a Nobel Prize winner in literature. Among his best known works are, Essai sur le données immédiates de la conscience, 1889 (in English, Time and Free Will); Matière et Mémoire, 1896; L'Evolution Créatrice, 1907; and Les Deux Sources de la Morale et de la Religion, 1932. In his last days Bergson, who was partly Jewish, refused a proffered honorary exemption from the onerous racial decrees which the Vichy government of France instituted in 1940.

English and American philosophy continued with vigor and freedom, greatly enriched by refugee scholars and enlivened by discussions of the moral and spiritual issues raised by the war. English learned journals and books continued to appear with but slight interruptions. None of the important philosophical journals suspended publication in 1941. Thus far there is no tendency visible to make German philosophy the scape-goat for the present world conflict. On the contrary, there seems to be a conscious effort to avoid those patriotically motivated denunciations of German philosophy which were so common during World War I. Instead, some academic and literary philosophers in America composed books setting forth the moral and spiritual basis of democracy and the underlying issues of the present conflict. Such, for example, was R. B. Perry's Shall not Perish from the Earth.

Positivism.

There was no distinctively new trend apparent in American and English philosophy. Positivism, in one form or another, remained the most vigorous and commanding school of thought. But there was growing evidence that it is passing from the initial phase of dogmatic, presumptive assertion into more moderate, circumspect forms. Not only are there several factions within positivism, but also many cross-currents and combinations of doctrine. It is no longer possible to give a simple or precise definition of what contemporary positivism is. Absorption in problems of method is common to all factions. Most systems of 'logical positivism' are compounded in various proportions of doctrines derived from the empiricism of Hume and Berkeley; Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus; Carnap's writings, especially Der logische Aufbau der Welt; other recent developments in symbolic logic and epistemology, stemming in the main from Bertrand Russell; the type of analysis best exemplified by Prof. G. E. Moore; the sciences of semantics and semiotics; theories of verification with a pragmatic moment; and in the more developed and systematic forms, a theory of perception is also included. Positivism is motivated by the desire to make of philosophy an exact science. This is accomplished in some instances by banishing the speculative element altogether and by dismissing many basic, traditional systems, either politely as a kind of intellectualized poetry, or rudely as sheer nonsense.

The evolution of positivistic doctrine is most clearly revealed by comparing Alfred J. Ayres latest book. The Foundations of Empirical Knowledge (late 1940) with his earlier Language, Truth and Logic (1936), the dogmatism of which created a furor in philosophical circles. The latest book is at once more modest and more solid than its predecessor. Metaphysical problems which the earlier work dismissed as nonsense are now probed and answered; and critical problems, such as causality and perception are analyzed more searchingly. While the writings of Ayer have precipitated a good deal of controversy, he is not so much an originator as a synthesizer of ideas. The work of Bertrand Russell, on the other hand, upon which Ayer leans, is a mainstay of contemporary positivism. Russell's most recent work, An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth, the William James Lectures at Harvard University, aims to specify the meaning of 'empirical evidence' and the connection of such evidence with materially true propositions. The general character of the book and the form in which the problems are stated indicates that epistemology is not nearly as dead as the frequent obsequies of recent times would have one believe.

The interest which positivists have always evinced in the relations of philosophy and the natural sciences was the chief subject of ten papers by Philipp Frank, collected under the title, Between Physics and Philosophy. He argues the now familiar theses that recent advances in physics do not support any special metaphysic and that science stands in no need of metaphysical justification. At the sixth International Congress for the Unity of Science, held at Chicago, many central and frontier problems in the present stage of the unification of knowledge were discussed, including the problems of the mental, social and moral sciences, which have hitherto been accorded less attention.

Epistemology.

Further evidence of the continued interest in epistemology was Ledger Wood's The Analysis of Knowledge, which exhibits an affinity for recent phenomenalistic and positivistic trends. While it does not develop any radically new hypotheses, it brings together much recent research on the problem of knowledge. A more independent work was C. J. Ducasse's Philosophy as a Science, Its Matter and Method. After criticizing various hypotheses of the nature and method proper to philosophy, he concludes that philosophy is a science of norms. The latter are described as 'spontaneous appraisals,' whether of ontological, epistemological, moral or aesthetic sorts. Another book, appearing at the end of the year, which treats the problems of epistemology in a broad and traditional compass was A. C. Ewing's Reason and Intuition. Evidence of the growing recognition and study of the philosophy of Charles Sanders Peirce, dating from the publication of his Collected Works, was to be found in the large number of articles devoted to the interpretation and evaluation of various aspects of his thought.

Logic.

Of significant contributions to pure logic there were very few. Georg Henrik von Wright's The Logical Problem of Induction, published by the Philosophical Society of Finland was of special interest. The author contends that Hume's critique of induction is unanswerable because of the way in which the problem was formulated. Among special topics in logic was R. Jackson's An Examination of the Deductive Logic of J. S. Mill. Ushenko's The Problems of Logic was a general treatment.

Recent Publications.

The year 1941 saw the growing interest in the history of philosophy continue undiminished. There were able studies covering special authors or subjects of every period, ancient, medieval and modern, written by secular and Catholic philosophers. Besides Lane Cooper's new translations of several of Plato's Socratic dialogues, W. A. Heidel's Hippocratic Medicine, Its Spirit and Method threw new light on Greek thought, especially on the connection between Greek philosophy, science and medicine. For those interested in the medieval period there was E. Crewdson Thomas's large History of the Schoolmen; and a symposium of Essays on Maimonides, which testified to the vitality of his Guide for the Perplexed. In the modern period H. F. Stewart's The Secret of Pascal, testified to the ever-present interest in that genius. New source material on Leibniz was made available by the publication of Leibniz's Unknown Correspondence with English Scholars and Men of Letters, published by the Warburg Institute.

The most important commentary of the year was Norman Kemp Smith's The Philosophy of David Hume: A Critical Study of its Origins and Central Doctrines. It is the most searching book on Hume which has yet appeared. Prof. Smith establishes the general thesis that Hume's preoccupation with 'the experimental method of reasoning' was motivated predominantly by his interest in ethical problems. The book traces out the conflicting influences on Hume of Newton's natural philosophy and Francis Hutcheson's defense of 'feeling' and 'belief,' which conflict Hume settled, excepting only mathematical reasoning, at the expense of reason.

Among other special studies in the history of thought was L. C. Rosenfield's From Beast-Machine to Man-Machine, a study of the two-fold theme of the animal soul and the mechanistic conception of life in French literature from Descartes to LaMettrie. A new addition of Benjamin Franklin's Experiments and Observations on Electricity, edited with a critical introduction by Bernard Cohen, will help to accord Franklin the place that is rightfully his in the history of science. R. B. Brandt's The Philosophy of Schleirmacher expounds the whole system of one who has been recognized hitherto only in the philosophy of religion. A new study of Ludwig Feuerbach under the title, Heaven Wasn't His Destination, by William B. Chamberlain, characterizes Feuerbach as the son of Hegel, father of Marx and half-brother of Comte: he might have added that he was at least the first cousin of Kierkegaard. Karl Löwith's Von Hegel bis Nietzsche deals in an illuminating way with the left-wing Hegelians and the nihilism resulting from their critique of the bourgeois-Christian-capitalistic conception of man and society. The nihilism, he claims, was finally overcome by Nietzsche's concept of the 'eternal recurrence.'

Studies of Nietzsche.

Interest in the intellectual backgrounds of the war greatly stimulated the study of Nietzsche. No less than four books about this controversial figure appeared in 1941. Crane Brinton's Nietzsche aimed to fill a popular need for scrutinizing Nietzsche's alleged connection with totalitarian ideology. Nietzsche and das Recht, by Kurt Kassler, sought to convince Nazi lawyers of Nietzsche's insight into specific legal questions. An illuminating comparison was presented in Alfred von Martin's Nietzsche and Burkhardt. George Morgan's What Nietzsche Means, the most thorough of the list, was a sympathetic study and appreciation of the challenge of Nietzsche. Not in the Nietzschean tradition was the pessimism of Ortega y Gasset's Towards a Philosophy of History — in which the author characterizes modern man as having successively lost faith in God and in reason, so that he now has nothing to cling to but the history of man.

Religion.

The philosophy of religion was greatly enriched by the long deferred appearance in English of most of the works of Sren Kierkegaard, Danish theologian and philosopher of the nineteenth century. In the past two years there have appeared in English, besides the two basic works Stages on Life's Way and Concluding Unscientific Postscript, several lesser works, among them The Sickness Unto Death: Repetition; Fear and Trembling; Thoughts on Crucial Situations in Human Life; and The Present Age. These are certain to provoke no little controversy in philosophical and theological circles, partly because of the Nietzsche-like quality of Kierkegaard's style, his love of mystification and the esoteric. The translations have been done for the most part by three ardent disciples: Walter Lowrie, the late Professor David Swenson and Alexander Dru. Professor Swenson's brief introduction, Something About Kierkegaard contains some illuminating chapters on his life and thought. Out of Germany, where Kierkegaard has been diligently assimilated for some time, came Willi Perpeet's Kierkegaard and die Frage nach einer Aesthetik der Gegenwart.

Another important contribution to the philosophy of religion, but in quite another tradition, was Etienne Gilson's God and Philosophy, the Powell Lectures at Indiana University. Professor Gilson contends that in Greek thought, Aristotle excepted, God remains outside the system of philosophical principles. It was Aristotle who established rational theology by making God the first principle of his system. Gilson then contrasts Augustine and Aquinas, showing that the former neglects the 'existential' element in God's nature, while in the convergence of the Aristotelian and Christian traditions in Aquinas, both the 'essential' and 'existential' aspects are clearly recognized. After a brief examination of God in modern philosophers, Gilson observes that neither philosophy nor science ultimately can dispense with the concept of God. In addition to this work, John Laird's Mind and Deity, the second series of Gifford Lectures, also appeared.

In the fields of metaphysics, aesthetics and political philosophy there was a dearth of new books. A new Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism came into being. Prof. DeWitt H. Parker's systematic work, Experience and Substance was the only metaphysical essay to appear during the year. Three works on political questions deserving of notice were, English Political Pluralism by H. M. Magid; Gerhart Niemeyer's Law Without Force; and Studies in Legal Terminology by Erwin Hexner.

The journal Philosophy and Phenomenological Research continued vigorously into its second year. It is now apparent that Husserlian phenomenology has lost much of its belabored and over-refined methodology in being transplanted to America. This journal also published some of Husserl's hitherto unpublished manuscripts. Devotees of Husserl's philosophy together produced a volume, Philosophical Essays in Memory of Edmund Husserl, intended to facilitate the understanding of his thought in America. Other events of special interest were the organization of a Philosophy of Education Society in Philadelphia, and the honoring of the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of William James at a plenary session of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association.

Philosophers in America were reminded once again of the need for vigilance in the defense of academic freedom. The Bertrand Russell Case, edited by John Dewey and Horace Kallen, presented a record and indictment of the bigotry and chauvinism which characterized the argument and conduct of those who restrained the Board of Education of New York City from honoring their contract with Mr. Russell. This case bids fair to take its place beside the Scopes trial as a cause célèbre in American education.

1940: Philosophy

Effect of the War.

The year stands out as one in which the impact of the War upon the interests, activities and thoughts of those who are concerned with philosophy became clearly evident. Philosophy in Germany, most deeply affected by events, has all but ceased. Only a few of her leading figures remain, and these are either reduced to silence, or to innocuous studies of topics remote from the stream of life, or to giving intellectual support to the official ideology of the state. All but a few of her learned journals in philosophy have suspended publication and her scholars are scattered over the Western Hemisphere, many of them seeking refuge in the United States of America. In France where the full effect of military and political changes were becoming apparent at year's end, four chief tendencies were manifest: (1) The idealistic rationalism for which Léon Brunschvieg is the titular leader; (2) the antirational or mystical tendency with emphasis on feeling and intuition, somewhat after the manner of Henri Bergson; (3) the positivist or scientific trend following in the paths marked out by Dürkheim and others; and (4) the Catholic philosophy, resting its case as usual on the Aristotelian-Thomist tradition.

Philosophy in Italy, though greatly restricted by political pressure, still displays some vigor, as is evidenced by the founding of two new journals, one in the philosophy of law (Ballettino dell' Istituto di Filosofia del Diritto), and another (Studi Filisofici) devoted to 'scientific philosophy and the unprejudiced interpretation of the whole of experience.' The main body of Italian philosophy still gravitates about the position of neo-idealism, especially in a form rendered congenial to Fascism by G. Gentile, whose Il Pensiero Italiano del Rinascimento appeared in a third edition, enlarged and rearranged. For the rest, the Italian literature in philosophy was devoted in the main to studies in the history of thought; no new trend has emerged nor has a figure of the originality and power of B. Croce appeared.

English philosophy continued on its way with vigor and freedom, augmented by scholars from the continent and enlivened by discussions of the moral and spiritual issues raised by the War. The latter covered many pages in publications such as Philosophy and the Hibbert Journal. The journal Mind, on the other hand, remained relatively uninfluenced by the world conflict. Books on a great variety of philosophical subjects ranging from scientific methodology through metaphysics to religion, continued to come from English presses, though in diminishing numbers.

The retreat of philosophy in Europe has intensified philosophy in America, and the United States is at present the philosophical center of the world. The influx of many scholars from foreign lands has given American philosophy a cosmopolitan character from which every existing school, national or imported, has benefited. Among events of importance was the founding of the International Phenomenological Society, at Buffalo, New York, and its new publication, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, devoted to the furtherance and extension of the doctrines of the late Edmund Husserl. A German periodical, the Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung, recently published in Paris, has now moved to the United States, where it will reappear as Studies in Philosophy and Social Science. The new Journal of the History of Ideas, under the editorship of A. O. Lovejoy, completed its first volume in 1940. Conferences on 'Methods in Philosophy and the Sciences,' and a 'Conference on Science, Philosophy and Religion in their Relation to the Democratic Way of Life,' held in New York City, were typical of numerous smaller conferences devoted to the social, political and scientific bearings of philosophy. An incident which precipitated much controversy was the revocation of the appointment of Bertrand Russell to a professorship at the College of the City of New York, on grounds of moral views which he expressed in his books of the post-war period.

Evidences of a current spiritual renaissance in Latin America, especially in Argentina, were furnished by a memorial volume on Alejandro Korn, leading anti-positivist and neo-idealist of South America, and by the publication of Principios de ideología, the first course of philosophical lectures, given from 1822-1827, at the University of Buenos Aires.

Publications.

Of the large number of books, covering the whole range of philosophical problems, published in the United States, in England, in France and elsewhere, several outstanding ones may be singled out for special mention. In the fields of epistemology and metaphysics, Brand Blanshard's The Nature of Thought (2 vols.) presented a cogent defense of modern idealism, replete with a coherence theory of truth and doctrine of internal relations; W. P. Montague's Ways of Things defended and elaborated the author's animistic materialism, in which, however, he makes room for ethics, aesthetics, and an emergent conception of God; and G. Santayana's The Realm of Spirit, a critical restatement of the Platonic element in his system of thought, completing his mature philosophy begun years ago with Skepticism and Animal Faith.

The number of works in the field of philosophical history and commentary was especially large. Some of the most noteworthy were: Emile Bréhier's study of the nature of history and of Descartes in particular, in La philosophic et son passé; André Mattei's L'Homme de Descartes, unusual in its stress on the religious foundation of Descartes' thought; two notable studies of Spinoza's thought, the first, H. Joachim's unfinished commentary on Spinoza's Tractatus de Intellectus Emendatione, the other, David Bidney's work on The Psychology and Ethics of Spinoza, which takes issue with Wolfson's well-known commentary on the same subject; F. H. Heinemann's David Hume, dealing especially with his science of human nature; G. R. G. Mure's Introduction to Hegel, by way of Aristotle; and the third volume of S. Dasgupta's definitive History of Indian Philosophy. The 'Library of Living Philosophers,' which has already published a volume on John Dewey, continued its unique series with a book of essays on Santayana along with his rejoinder.

Of especial interest in the numerous works on the philosophy of religion, including both Protestant and Catholic approaches, were: John Laird's Theism and Cosmology, the first of his Gifford Lectures, containing a critical examination of the cosmological proof of the existence of God; W. E. Hocking's Hibbert Lectures on Living Religions and a World of Faith, which seek to set forth the universal essence in the plurality of religions; Douglas C. Macintosh's Problems of Religious Knowledge; Edgar S. Brightman's A Philosophy of Religion; and two defenses of neo-Thomism, Antonia Lombardi's Critica delle metafisiche, and Jacques Maritain's Scholasticism and Politics, an exposition of liberal Catholic humanism.

In the relatively small number of books on logic and methodology, Willard Quine's Mathematical Logic was outstanding. It makes use of new techniques and improvements discovered since the appearance of Russell's Principia Mathematica. Kurt Riezler's Physics and Reality, defends the Aristotelian philosophy of nature against the doctrine of modern physics. In Mathematico-Deductive Theory of Rote Learning, a group of authors apply modern logical techniques to experiments in learning. J. H. Woodger's The Technique of Theory Construction, constitutes the fifth number of vol. 2 of the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science.

The field of aesthetics and of criticism was greatly enriched by T. M. Greene's The Arts and the Art of Criticism, in which he works out a precise set of categories intended to deepen the enjoyment of art through understanding. In the field of social philosophy, Karl Mannheim's book, Man and Society in an Age of Social Reconstruction, a brilliant and convincing study of what has brought European civilization to its fearful pass, stood out above all other works. Sidney Hook's Reason, Social Myths and Democracy defends a reasonable, socialized democracy from the idolatries of both the Right and the Left.

Necrology.

Death claimed many able scholars in philosophy in 1940, among them Frederick J. E. Woodbridge, founder and editor of the Journal of Philosophy; David W. Prall, best known for his work in values, aesthetics in particular; Abel Rey, distinguished in the philosophy of science; Célestin Bouglé, widely known for his contributions to sociology and the field of values; and John H. Muirhead, last of the old guard of British idealism.

1939: Philosophy

Logical Positivism.

Philosophy has always consisted of apparently irreconcilable 'schools of thought,' so much so that the question, 'Must philosophers disagree?' is a matter of not infrequent discussion. In recent years a new school has developed, so-called Logical Positivism, which has made an important attempt at effecting a reconciliation by formulating a view from which it follows that the disagreements between the various philosophical traditions are not genuine. Its view, in general, is that philosophers do not actually disagree with each other, because the problems with regard to which they seem to disagree are only pseudo problems resulting from linguistic confusions. In other words, recent Positivism has sought to establish intellectual amity amongst philosophers by depriving them of their problems. Regardless of whether their view concerning philosophical problems is correct, it cannot, however, be said that in practice they have been successful. For the year which has just passed has seen the publication of a number of books in a variety of philosophical traditions.

Logical Positivism has been most productive of interesting works, of which only a selection can be discussed here. Prof. Carnap, the outstanding Positivist, in his 'Foundations of Logic and Mathematics' (written for the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science) investigates briefly the foundations of logic and mathematics and considers their application to empirical material in the sciences. The study is based on the distinctions, within the theory of language, between pragmatics, the theory of the relations between signs and their users, semantics, the theory of the relations between signs and their meanings, and syntax, the theory of the relations between signs, without reference to their meanings. In his present work, the author develops his theory with regard to foundation problems in logic and mathematics, as formulated in his 'Logical Syntax of Language,' so as to include the semantical aspect of language. His present view is that syntactical rules are sufficient only for the formation of a calculus, and that only by the addition of semantical rules can a meaningful language be obtained. With regard to the application of mathematics to propositions of science Prof. Carnap's view is that it 'consists merely in a transformation of the premises without adding anything to what they say about the facts.'

The purpose of Prof. Bloomfield's 'Linguistic Aspects of Science' (also written for the International Encyclopedia of Unified Science) is 'to state briefly such general considerations of linguistics as may throw light upon the procedure of science.' A causal theory of literal meaning is adopted, and on the basis of a view of this sort the speech community is explained: 'The biosocial aspect of language consists in the fact that the persons in the community have been trained to produce these sounds in certain situations and to respond to them by appropriate actions.' Some of the basic notions of linguistics, e.g., scientific 'report,' negation, contradiction, implication, etc., are then explained. The view is taken that 'In connection with science, language is specialized in the direction of forms which successfully communicate handling-responses and lend themselves to elaborate reshaping (calculation).' Mathematics is considered to be an 'art,' rather than a science, concerned with the 'invention and skilful manipulation of speech forms,' while the task of logic is 'the critique and theory of scientific speech.'

Prof. Schlick's book, 'Problems of Ethics,' (translated from the German by David Rynin), presents the only detailed Positivistic account of ethics. The general view adopted with regard to philosophy is that found in Wittgenstein's 'Tractatus,' namely: '. . . philosophy is not a science, that is, it is not a system of propositions. Its task consists in making clear the content of scientific propositions, that is, in determining or discovering their meaning. . . . This activity constitutes the essence of philosophy; there are no philosophical problems, but only philosophical acts.' With regard to ethics in particular Prof. Schlick holds that 'If there are ethical questions which have meaning, and are therefore capable of being answered, then ethics is a science. For the correct answers to its questions will constitute a system of true propositions, and a system of true propositions concerning an object is the 'science' of that object. Thus ethics is a system of knowledge.' 'Ethics has entirely to do with the actual.' 'Its task cannot be to produce morality, or to establish it, or to call it to life.' Rather its central problem 'concerns the causal explanation of moral behavior,' and belongs to the field of psychology.

Study of Language.

Problems of more general interest are discussed by Mr. Karl Britton in his book, 'Communication: A Philosophical Study of Language,' which is concerned with properties of language and uses to which it is put. He begins by making the now familiar distinction between the emotive and informative functions of language, and with regard to this distinction holds that ethical statements are partly emotive and partly descriptive of means to promote certain interests of individuals or groups of people. His general view is that literally significant assertions, as distinguished from purely emotive ones, are of two sorts, contingent or necessary. Necessary statements are linguistic and provide information about ways in which the symbols of a given language are or ought to be used. Contingent statements are those which provide information about the world and are such that in order to be literally significant they must be verifiable in some sense. With regard to a special class of contingent statements, namely physical object statements, Mr. Britton holds a phenomenalistic view, according to which physical object statements reduce to experiential ones.

Pragmatic Literature.

In the Pragmatic tradition two books of special importance have appeared: John Dewey's 'Logic: The Theory of Inquiry' and 'The Philosophy of John Dewey,' the first volume of the new philosophical library, 'The Library of Living Philosophers.' The latter volume consists of seventeen essays, contributed by various philosophers, which are both critical and expository of Dewey's theories of logic, epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, etc., together with a rejoinder by Dewey himself. The essays and rejoinder together serve to produce considerable clarification of Dewey's views. A number of points central to his views are brought out by Dewey, a few of which may be noted here: his conception of experience as an 'interaction of living creatures with their environment'; his view of 'the function of a problematic situation in regulating as well as evoking inquiry'; his view that knowing involves the 'deliberate modification, through working ideas, of what previously existed'; and his distinction between 'the instrumentality of propositions in process of inquiry' and 'the instrumentality of attained knowledge, through development of intelligence, to enrichment of subsequent experience.'

In view of the recent developments in symbolic logic, Dewey's new 'Logic,' which in part consists of an evaluation of those developments, is of special importance. His final opinion is that though symbolic logic has contributed some formal devices which are useful instrumentalities for inquiry, it must nevertheless, on the whole, be replaced by a more 'operational' logic. His own view is that logic is an affair of 'situations,' both cultural and biological, and that out of situations inquiry grows. The structure of inquiry is given in the following definition: 'Inquiry is the controlled and directed transformation of an indeterminate situation into one that is so determinate in its constituent distinctions and relations as to convert the elements of the original situation into a unified whole.'

Naturalistic School.

Two contributions of importance have been made to Naturalistic philosophy, one of general nature, Prof. Pratt's 'Naturalism,' the other in ethics, Prof. Westermarck's 'Christianity and Morals.' The former book is devoted in part to tracing the various forms Naturalism has taken throughout the history of philosophy. Modern Naturalism, which actually is divided into three schools, the modern Lamarckians, the Mechanists, and the Vitalists, is explained and its relations to evolution, morality, religion, etc., are discussed. Prof. Westermarck's book, which is encyclopedic in its wealth of detail, is primarily concerned with an evaluation of Christian morals and religion from the point of view of a naturalistic theory of ethics and religion, according to which right and wrong are defined in terms of the retributive emotions of approval and disapproval, and religion as 'a belief in and a regardful attitude towards a supernatural being on whom man feels himself dependent and to whom he makes an appeal in his worship.' One important part of the book is devoted to determining 'how far these theories (dogmas which have appeared in the history of Christian ethics) are in agreement with the nature of our moral emotions'; the other important part is concerned with 'the influence of Christianity upon ideas and behavior within different branches of morality,' where he deals with such subjects as slavery, economics, marriage, and divorce. 'The ethics of Jesus' is held to be 'not only hedonism but egoistic hedonism.'

The publication of Prof. W. D. Ross' Gifford Lectures of 1935-36, 'The Foundations of Ethics,' gives us a book which is in a philosophical tradition diametrically opposed to that in which Prof. Westermarck writes. Prof. Ross makes a considerable effort to refute the 'naturalistic fallacy.' His own view is that the ethical terms 'right' and 'good' (in the intrinsic sense of 'good') are indefinable. This view is already well known from his 'The Right and the Good.' But in his more recent book he no longer holds that 'good' has a single meaning; he now maintains that moral good and pleasure are not good in the same sense.

There remains space only to mention some further works of considerable interest: 'A Sacramental Universe,' Archibald Allen Bowman; 'Language and Reality,' Wilbur Marshall Urban; 'Reason,' University of California Publications in Philosophy; 'Principles of the Theory of Probability,' Ernest Nagel; 'Procedure of Empirical Science,' Victor F. Lenzen; 'Man and His World,' John Elof Boodin; 'A History of Esthetics,' Katherine E. Gilbert and Helmut Kuhn.

1938: Philosophy

The Year's Features.

The year 1938 saw the development of no startling trend in philosophy, nor was there evidence of rapid disintegration in any existing school. Among the features of the year were: continued interest in the problems of methodology and philosophy of science; increasing vigor in the attack upon problems of esthetics; attention claimed by the field of values, moral values in particular.

Regional Philosophic Thought.

Though positivism and phenomenalism continued to dominate in America, there were many excellent minds working along traditional lines in every philosophical discipline. The periodical literature reflected a growing suspicion that semantics and semiotics may be a wooden horse which contains those very assumptions that positivism and phenomenalism had hoped to avoid. While this issue hung in the balance, there was no dearth of studies in the history of philosophy.

British philosophy was still rather sharply divided into the analytical-verbal group centered about Cambridge, and those who preferred the older methods of inquiry. But here as elsewhere the concern with methodology did not preclude the unabating interest in the problems and literature of the past. Philosophical thought in Germany, when it was not swayed by contemporary political exigencies, continued to follow either (1) the Nietzsche-Dilthey direction, dealing with the problems of historical consciousness, or (2) the phenomenologists, who desire to overcome the skepticism and relativism of the historical approach. German philosophy was centered as usual upon the problems of human life and was for the most part out of touch with the natural sciences other than psychology and sociology. It not only remained characteristically cool to positivism, but also evinced little interest in pure logic and logistics. In France, on the other hand, philosophy and natural science continued to fructify each other; while the interest in medieval philosophy, in the philosophy and history of Christianity, and in French classical thought, continued undiminished. In Italy, the Hegelian tradition and the pursuit of historical and esthetic problems still occupied the attention of philosophers.

Scientific Methodology and Logic.

Philosophical literature in 1938 was largely devoted to problems of methodology. First among the works in this field is the ambitious 'International Encyclopedia of Unified Science,' of which three parts of Volume I have appeared. This scholarly cooperative venture, under the direction of Otto Neurath, aims to exhibit the formulations and interrelations of the sciences for purposes of general enlightenment and stimulation, not unlike the French Encyclopedie of the eighteenth century. The distinguished authors represent no 'school,' but have in common only their interest in the problems of scientific method. The 'unity of science' is conceived to lie in a continuity of procedures. Doctors Neurath, Niels Bohr, John Dewey, Bertrand Russell, Rudolf Carnap, C. W. Morris, and Victor Lenzen have contributed to the monographs now in print. Another work falling within this domain is Russell's 'Principles of Mathematics,' lately reissued. While the text of this monumental work remains unchanged, Russell has included a brief Introduction in which he defends the Russell-Frege doctrine against intuitionist criticisms. He also adds some comments on logical propositions, which indicate that his defection from Platonic realism has not forced him into nominalism. The appearance of Alfred Tarski's 'Einführung in die mathematische Logik und in die Methodologie der Mathematik,' an elementary work, is additional evidence of the steady interest in the philosophical problems of mathematics.

Of the remaining books in logic and scientific methodology, Susan Stebbing's 'Philosophy and the Physicists,' appearing late in 1937, deserves special notice. Miss Stebbing lustily chastises Messrs. Edington and Jeans for using scientific concepts in moral, theological, and common-sense contexts — thus obfuscating the general reader while pretending to enlighten him. Admirers of the late Moritz Schlick were pleased to see his 'Gesammelte Aufsätze 1926-1936' come into print; the essays reveal a trenchant power of grammatical analysis, as well as a disposition to moderate the extravagant condemnation of philosophy's past, which was the fashion among the members of the Vienna Circle. In England, the articles of John Wisdom in Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society and Mind, said to contain elements of Wittgenstein's developed philosophy hitherto available only in manuscript among the elect, pointed to certain limitations of G. E. Moore's analysis of the concepts of metaphysics. Hans Reichanbach's 'Experience and Prediction,' an untechnical restatement of his 'Wahrschein-lichkeitslehre,' showed how probability statements bear upon scientific method, theory of knowledge, and general logic.

John Dewey's 'Logic: The Theory of Inquiry' was not only one of the most important books of the year but also one of the best of this illustrious author's long career. A comprehensive systematization of the dynamic empirical method, embracing observation, hypothesis, and verification after the pattern of biological science, the book aims to do for the modern age what Aristotle's 'Logic' did for Greek culture. It should go far towards complementing the abstract and a priori logic which now prevails.

Epistemology.

Turning now to epistemology, the year produced a provocative and influential book in G. Dawes Hicks' 'Critical Realism.' The realism of Hicks, not to be confused with the late American 'critical realism,' contains both Kantian and non-Kantian elements. The object of perception, according to Hicks, is conceptual as well as sensory. The perceptual continuum is a whole within which the act of perception discriminates some aspect or 'sensum.' The sensa are thus act-functions, not pure intuitions. The view leads to certain difficulties in the interpretation of mind, nature, and error, which the author does not succeed wholly in removing. Another work, quite dissimilar in contents, Jacques Maritain's 'Les degrés de savoir,' became available to English readers under the title, 'The Degrees of Knowledge.' It offers a penetrating analysis of Thomistic epistemology in relation to contemporary mathematical and physical advances, besides giving a defense of Christian mysticism. Santayana's new book 'The Realm of Truth: Book Third of the Realms of Being,' may also be included here. Most of its theses have already been expounded elsewhere. Truth is a 'radiation of existence'; it is fact, however contingent, which makes the truth true. Truth is inherently neither necessary, useful, nor coherent. Beyond truth lie esthetic, moral, and spiritual values. Santayana has lost none of his wizardry with words: the polished phrases and picturesque metaphors which fill these pages make them both a philosophical and an esthetic delight.

Metaphysics.

Foremost, among the books of metaphysics was 'Möglichkeit und Wirklichkeit,' by Germany's leading philosopher, Nicolai Hartmann. Continuing with the ontology of spiritual Being, the groundwork of which was laid in his 'Zur Grundlegung der Ontologie,' Hartmann now develops the modal aspects of Being. These speculations, the foundation of his influential philosophy of values, and the culmination of a brilliant career, will reach completion in another volume which will define the categories of 'real Being.' Speculative metaphysics in America was ably represented by Paul Weiss, whose 'Reality' is patterned courageously after the great tradition. Under the new label of 'Epochalism,' the author opposes current trends by taking individuals, instead of events, to be the basic units of reality. Other important works in metaphysics were George H. Mead's 'The Philosophy of Act,' G. Matisse's 'L'Arrangement de l'Univers par l'Esprit,' and Theodor Litt's 'Die Selbsterkenntnis der Menschen.'

Esthetics.

Although it is hazardous to generalize on the wealth of periodical literature and books on esthetics appearing in 1938, there was much evidence of a fresh emphasis upon the esthetic experience coupled with a defense of its objective character. Among the outstanding books was Stephen C. Pepper's 'Esthetic Quality,' wherein the author identifies art with the qualitative aspect of experience; life, like art, is justified when its quality is intense, deep, and pervasive; moral and esthetic values are continuous. Among other noteworthy books may be mentioned the following: H. N. Lee's 'Perception and Aesthetic Value'; R. G. Collingwood's 'The Principles of Art'; and E. Jordan's 'The Aesthetic Object.'

Theory of Value.

In theory of value, Wolfgang Kohler's 'The Place of Value in a World of Facts' was an important contribution. In these William James Lectures the author shows that in the world of so-called facts, the mind strives, through concepts and logical principles, to realize something normative. Values are among the facts of nature insofar as the 'requiredness' of some part of a total context is based upon the objective properties of that context. J. R. Reed's 'A Theory of Value' also deserves mention. Several books published before 1938 also received favorable notice: Oskar Kraus's 'Die Werttheorien,' and Herbert Spielberg's 'Antirelativismus' and 'Gesetz und Sittengesetz.'

Philosophy of Religion.

In the related field of philosophy of religion, the appearance of another commentary on the Danish theologian, Kierkegaard, by Walter Lowrie, coming with the announcement of the prospective publication of an English translation of Kierkegaard's works, emphasized again his growing influence in England and America.

The appearance of Benedetto Croce's 'La Storia come Pensiero e come Azione,' in which the venerable author reaffirms his Hegelian-like spiritual optimism, is not without interesting political implications. For Croce, history is, in essence, the unfolding of spiritual liberty, triumphing in its course over every form of irrationalism, including 'statism.' The state, he affirms, can at best provide the stability necessary for the development of the highest spiritual aspiration.

Historical Studies and Commentaries.

Of the great wealth of historical studies and commentaries to appear in 1938, only the outstanding ones can be mentioned. Of interest to historians of philosophy was the publication of 'An Abstract of a Treatise of Human Nature,' apparently written by Hume, but never before published. While it is a useful condensation, it throws no new light on the 'Treatise.' The ever-present interest in Plato was evidenced by the works of Paul Stöklin and Constantin Sandulescu-Godeni, dealing in particular with the myths and irrational elements in Plato. Professor Lane Cooper also offered a volume of new translations of Plato's esthetical dialogues. For students of Kant there was the excellent 'Commentary on Kant's `Critique of Judgment,'' by H. W. Cassirer; also Paul Schlipp's 'Kant's Pre-critical Ethics,' which performs a most useful service in rescuing Kant from the charges of empty formalism and being a cold 'Verstandesmensch' in ethics. The first volume of what promises to be a large-scale Italian commentary on Hegel, by Siro Contri, also appeared. The second volume of C. D. Broad's 'Examination of McTaggart's Philosophy' completes the exposition and critique of that Scotsman's 'infinitely ingenious and beautiful interlocking mechanism.' Rudolf Metz's indispensable history of British philosophical tendencies appeared in English as 'A Hundred Years of British Philosophy.' Professor R. B. Perry's, 'In the Spirit of William James' continued his constructive and self-effacing interpretation of James's philosophy. Eduard Baumgarten produced 'Der Pragmatismus: Emerson — James — Dewey,' the second volume of his provocative study of American culture. And as if to lend emphasis to this wealth of historical study, a group of American philosophers under the leadership of Professor Lovejoy hope soon to launch a Journal of the History of Idea; while 'The Library of Living Philosophers,' under the editorship of Paul A. Schlipp, announced its debut next year with a volume of the philosophy of John Dewey.

Necrology.

Death claimed two outstanding figures in the past year. Professor S. Alexander of England, best known for his panoramic treatment of realism in 'Space, Time and Deity'; and Edmund Husserl of Germany, founder and moving spirit of the phenomenological method and school, to which his celebrated 'Logische Untersuchungen' and other writings attracted students and disciples from Europe and America.