Idea-men Of Today

FOREWORD The disagreements, vagueness, instability, and complexity of con temporary thought have long discouraged the careful scholar from attempting an over-all hook that could pass as a history of recent and present-day philosophy. The hope for such a work is by no means the aim of this volume. The much less pretentious claims of the present study can be understood from its genesis as a whole. It began as a series of summaries for college discussion groups, and though greatly expanded and even supplemented with new topics, it still remains a series of essays outlining the basic principles of present-day philosophers. The student and the educated layman, unwilling and without direction unable to read through the vast output of contemporary philosophers, have not had a satisfactory guide book toward a general view of present-day thought, apart from its historical and systematic detail. Part I traces the background to the contemporary scene, though again as an incomplete history those doctrines alone have been stressed that have important and direct relevance to the issues in the present. Parts II and III, grouping present-day philosophies for one reason or another into two large families, discuss fifteen present-day thinkers, typical, important, influential, prominent when not in doctrine at least in influence. In these two sections the primary objective is to outline the basic principles of the various philosophers with criticism interspersed only where it clarifies exposition. Each chapter is then followed by a skeleton of critical remarks, in accordance with the original study-club purposes of the essays. In the criticisms, every effort is made to be constructive before taking issuewith the men involved. The negative criticisms in each case viii FOREWORD are aimed at one or more of the doctrines which show what view points of the philosophies in question are either wrong or in adequate for sound reason. Part IV sketches two issues that were found weaving their way throughout preceding chapters. To his wife, the author is profoundly indebted not only for her constant encouragement but for her critical assistance as well. The manuscript was read by Dr. James Collins, of St. Louis University, and the Rev. Dr. Ferrer Smith, O. P., of the Dominican House of Studies, Washington, D. C. Though the author bears the responsibility for the final form of the book, he wishes to point how immeasurably he has been helped by these discerning readers and to thank them sincerely for their care and competence. A great debt is owed to Mr. J. Paul Spaeth for technical and moral support in building this book from a series of short essays. Gratitude is expressed to the sisters of the author for typing the final draft of the manuscript. Finally, thanks are also due to the editors of The Thomist and of Thought for permission to borrow portions of articles which the author wrote for their pages and has here used in Part III. CONTENTS FOREWORD vii PART I 1. THE EBBING OF A TIDE i PART II 2. DEWEYS DISCOVERY OF THE INSTRUMENT 25 3. BEAUTY AND S ANT AY ANA 55 4. THE ORGANIC WORLD OF WHITEHEAD 79 5. RUSSELLS ASCENT TO LOGIC 105 6. FROM LOGICALISM TO SEMANTICS 133 7. FREUDS ANALYSIS OF MAN 162 8. THE DIALECTICAL WORLD OF MARXISM 185 PART III 9. BERGSON A REACTION AGAINST SCIENTISM 213 10. KIERKEGAARDS DESCENT TO THE INDIVIDUAL 238 11. HEIDEGGERS RETURN TO BEING 265 12. SARTRES REFUGE IN ATHEISM288 1 3. TRANSCENDENCE IN KARL JASPERS 3 1 1 14. EXISTENTIALISM BECOMES SPIRITUAL 333 ix x CONTENTS PART IV 15. MIND AND MATTER 371 1 6. THE UNIVERSE OF HIERARCHY 398 INDEX 425 IDEA-MEN OF TODAY