HANOVER BROWSING

THE LAST TWO months my browsing was done in books not too difficult to comprehend. This month I decided to browse in more substantial fields. The majority of the volumes recommended in this issue cannot be placed in the class of easy works. They demand disciplined application, concentrated attention and sustained reflection. One must ponder over them. However that is altogether to the good. Not that I believe there is magical value in a difficult book in itself. But a steady diet of light books or novels is not conducive to intellectual development. A certain amount of severe mental effort is good for the reader. Many modern readers tend to run away from solid books. They give up reading books which give them any difficulty. We need substantial fare in our reading as much as in our eating. We cannot grow sturdily on soft desserts or a continuous diet of jello. But in their reading many persons take nothing but sweetmeats. They refuse to put forth effort to masticate and swallow and digest hard, solid fcooks.

Effortless reading, however, is as pernicious as canned education. I am not saying that my list this month is made up of particularly hard books. Some of those included are, but most of them are only reasonably so, and about four of them are light and pleasant. At the same time nearly all of them call for effort even on the part of the trained student. On the whole my reading this month was the hardest I have tackled this year. More than half the volumes read are of a philosophical nature. Meditating on them as is my wont I find that they provided me with a good review of the great historical philosophies of the last 2500 years. Only the Kantian and the Hegelian systems are excluded. This is the list.

1. Academic Illusions in the Field ofLetters and the Arts. Martin Schutze. University of Chicago Press. 1933.

If it were not for the heavy style and cumbersome expression of this book I would recommend it more genuinely. I like its downright honesty and spirit. It contains sharp criticisms of the dialectical theories and practice of many German philosophers and literary critics. His plea is for the poet-artist-scholar as the teacher of literature and the arts.

2. Great Men of Science. Philipp Lenard Translated from the German by H. S. Hat field. Macmillan and Co. 1933.

A splendid book. It is a history of science told through the original contributions to various fields by the key men of science. It begins with the Greeks and comes down to the period of the Great War. It excludes living scientists from the story. It tends to overemphasize individuals and it has some curious omissions. Anybody interested in science and in the habits of thought associated with science will find it extremely valuable.

3. History of Europe in the NineteenthCentury. Benedetto Croce. Translated from the Italian by Henry Furst. Harcourt Brace Co. 1933.

In these dictatorial days when liberty is attacked on all sides it is a delight to read a volume of this sort. It is the history of the nineteenth century written in terms of its movements of liberation both in life and thought. It is the intellectual and spiritual history of Europe between the Napoleonic wars and the Great War. Croce is the leading Neo-Hegelian philosopher of Italy. He is also one of the most thoughtful critics of Mussolini in so far as his policies are directed against the great liberal and democratic traditions and institutions of the modern world. His book is a noble defence of the idea and spirit of liberty and its unfoldment in the living history of a great century. It has weaknesses—yes, a number—but its faith and spirit are above reproach.

4. Invitation to Philosophy. Burant Drake. Houghton Mifflin Co. 1933.

I regard this as one of the best recent books serving as an introduction to philosophy. I like its general layout and its effective approaches to the problems and insights of philosophy. It is not too hard for the non-specialized reader.

5. The Essence of Plato's Philosophy. Constantin Ritter. Translated from the German by Adam Alles. George Allen and Unwin. 1933.

I enjoyed this interpretation of the wisdom of Plato by one of the best known German students of Platonism. His position on many moot questions of interpretation has much in common with that of Burnet and Taylor although differing from them in some sections. The second part of the book is easier than the first which is on the epistemology and logic of Plato. Worth reading.

6. Some Turns of Thought in ModernPhilosophy. Five Essays by George Santayana. Cambridge University Press. 1933.

A slight book by a poet-philosopher having many things in common with Plato. He is not quite at his best here either in lightness of touch or beauty of style or keenness of thought. But anything by Santayana is worth reading. I liked his long essay on John Locke the best.

7. Within the Gates. Sean O'Casey. Macmillan Company. 1934.

This is a poetic, symbolic play. I read it for relief and sheer pleasure. It impressed me favorably. It is Hyde Park, London, lifted up to the plane of a strange beauty and poetry and at times biting if not bitter symbolism. I would like to see it on the stage.

8. Aristotle. G. R. G. Mure. Ernest Benn, Ltd. 1933.

I found this exposition of the philosophy and influence of Aristotle rather helpful. However it reads a little heavily. On the whole he has done a sound piece of work, arid does justice to the leading ideas in Aristotle's many-sided philosophy.

9. The Conception of God in the Philosophy of Aquinas. Robert Leet Patterson. George Allen and Unwin. 1933.

This deals with only a limited part of the philosophy of Aquinas. The arguments for the existence of God as found in the Summa contra gentiles and the First book of the Summa Theologica and elsewhere are analysed and discussed with fidelity and effectiveness. For the general reader who may prefer a more inclusive treatment of the Thomistic synthesis of Aristotelean and Christian thought I can recommend Rev. M. C. D'Arcy's Thomas Aquinas.

10. Descartes. S. V. Keeling. Ernest Benn, Ltd. 1934.

This with Boyce Gibson's volume on the same subject should satisfy the student of Descartes' philosophy.

11. Foundations of the Philosophy ofValue: An Examination of Value andValue Theories. H. Osborne. Cambridge University Press. 1933.

A good treatment of the various types of value theories and philosophies. Naturalistic, subjective and realistic theories are discussed and rejected. The author's position is that of objective idealism.

12. The Place of Minds in the World. Gifford Lectures. First Series. Sir William Mitchell. Macmillan and Co. 1933.

A recent addition to the volumes containing \ these distinguished lectures. However I cannot rate this volume among the best of the series. It is written in a confused and obscure style. It lacks clarity of thought and expression. The difficulty of the book is due very largely to its method and style. If I understood the author correctly I am in sympathy with a lot of his ideas and viewpoints. His position in the main is realistic. A volume for the professional philosopher who is not deficient in patience.

13. The Nature of Religion. George Wobbermin. Translated from the German by T. Menzel and D. S. Robinson. Thomas Y. Crowell. 1933.

An excellent contribution to the philosophy of religion. The second part contains an interesting appraisal of the truthvalue of religion. His criticisms in this section are pointed and far-reaching. The first part of the book gives us a splendid clarification of the religious positions of Schleiermacher.

14. New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis. Sigmund Freud. Authorized translation by W. J. H. Sprott. Hogarth Press. 1933.

Wobbermin in his book criticises Freud's interpretation of religion. We are getting to be more discriminating than we were a few years ago about the teachings of Freud. Here we have his system in its modern form. He makes a few additions and corrections to his earlier theories, and defends them against some of the misinterpretations of the criticis. Worth reading.

15- Psycho-Analysis and Its Derivatives. H. Crichton-Miller. Henry Holt and Co. 1933-

A Home University volume. It is a simple, balanced and clear exposition of the systems of Freud and Adler and Jung. I can commend this highly to those who want a reliable elementary interpretation of psycho-analysis. Well written.

16. The Horizon of Experience. A Philosophy for the Modern Man. C. Delisle Burns. W. W. Norton and Co. 1934.

I can recommend this to the reader who wants a popular and moderately satisfactory philosophy for a world of flux. A philosophy of flux for an increasingly changeful world. It has many weaknesses but it is readable.

17. Beauty and Other Forms of Value. S. Alexander. Macmillan Co. 1933.

An interesting discussion of this subject in its many phases. He interprets values as being dependent partly on the appreciative activities of minds in relation to independently existing objects. External reality and mind penetrate each other and amalgamate with each other in values. The implications of this interpretation would seem to point away from Alexander's extreme realistic position in relation to objects in general. It recognises the inventive activity of minds in so far as values are concerned. But the author does not regard this as in any way a compromise with idealism. Space does not allow me to expound this theory of values. The book contains excellent chapters on The Creative Process in the Artist'sMind, Form and Subject Matter, and Poetry and Prose in the Arts.

As I HAVE suggested already, this list con„ tains books relating to the most systematic and influential of the great historical philosophies. The influence of the poet-philosopher, Plato, and the central ideas of his system of thought, has been felt throughout in many periods in the history of Western civilization. Even today thinkers like Santayana and Whitehead and many others reveal affinities with Plato. He still lives and his insights still haunt the modern mind. The same may be said of Aristotle. More of a logical and systematic thinker than Plato but less of a poet and an artist, he likewise has been a potent force in shaping the intellectual history of the West.

And what can we say of the dialectical system of Thomas Aquinas? The Thomastic synthesis appeals to many a modern thinker—at least in some of its positions and that not only among Catholic theologians and in Catholic schools. His influence is much wider than that. The growth of Neo-Scholasticism in the modern world is sufficient evidence of the enduring vitality of his thought. His robust faith in reason and in its methods, his salutary objectivity of thought as well as his comprehensiveness of outlook in general compares very favorably with the subjectivisms and irrationalism so frequently found in much of what passes today for modern advanced thought.

The rationalism of Descartes as well as other important elements in the Cartesian system not customarily stressed have been powerful elements in the making of the modern mind and world. We are still unable to resolve satisfactorily his dualism of mind and body. His ideal of valid knowledge and his faith in deduction and his tests of truth and many other elements in his philosophy have contributed a great deal to the ways of thinking and body of ideas which have been of most importance in creating the characteristic features of contemporary thought. Some of his positions have not been able to withstand the new facts and knowledge which have poured in upon us in the last two hundred years. But then all the older systems of thought have been affected by the same disturbing accumulations of new facts and knowledge. In The Horizon of Experience C. D. Burns assumes that the philosophy of the modern man must be one of flux. It must be a philosophy essentially dynamic in nature. It must help the modern man grow along with a rapidly changing world in which continuously new facts and new values will emerge to complicate the task of adaptation. We cannot have the old relatively static world back again. Neither can we have the old certainties and stabilities. We live in a new world of rapid change and our philosophy must be flexible and forward-looking in spirit and outlook.

Professor Burns I think overemphasizes the flux and tends to lose sight of the relatively more permanent aspects of reality. It is imperative that philosophers should take time seriously, but he takes time perhaps too seriously. To take flux and Father Time into serious consideration may be the beginning of wisdom in philosophy, but must it be also the end of wisdom? It may and undoubtedly is the first word of philosphic wisdom, but must it be also the last word? What he has to say in his book on the creativeness of art and thought has something in common with Alexander's realistic ideas. Not that Burns is nearly as great a philosopher as lexander. For among modern philosophers which may be termed realists, a position of pre-eminence must be given to Alexander. He is in many ways the great system-builder of contemporary realism.

A The recent volumes of Whitehead bring together realistic and idealistic elements. His philosophy of nature is being supplemented by a stimulating philosophy of society, history, art and religion. Others have also contributed besides Alexander and Whitehead to remove a certain kind of incoherency and fragmentariness present in realistic systems of thought. Recent advances in physical science have also helped to emphasize the significance of Time and Space not separately but in their togetherness and the passage of events in nature for any moderh philosophy of nature be it realistic or idealistic. In a sense we find in recent realistic philosophies a universe and not an incoherent aggregate of independent entities and relations. The works of these men have helped also in giving us a more satisfactory philosophy of values. Yet notwithstanding these notable achievements it is still permissible to say that the weakest part of contemporary realism lies in its interpretation of values. Its sociology, its ethics, its esthetics, and its understanding of religion are yet fragmentary and uncoordinated. The great need now is to synthesize the vast body of facts and insights, of ideals and regulative principles we possess relative to nature, life, society, history, industry, ethics, art and religion and values. It is a synthesis of this sort that is most needed not only in our systems of thought but equally so in our systems of education.

Everywhere we have mountains of specialized knowledge but molehills of wisdom, a plethora of facts but a paucity of communal vision. Here lies the task of this generation of scientists and philosophers.