The Theory of Relativity and A Priori Knowledge (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 279 117). In addition, Dr. Ward does not seriously consider the opinions of philosophers who would seem to deny that there is such a determinate thing as human nature. For example, Jean Paul Sartre's view that there is no such thing as human nature is termed "silly" insofar is it denies so evident a fact. Throughout his book, Dr. Ward is quite concerned to reconcile as much as possible the educational philosophy of John Dewey with his own position . As to the possibility that Dewey might not agree with him that the end of man is determined by nature, Dr. Ward remarks: "We have to say that nature does it; and that is what Dewey, deep in his bones, meant to say" (p. 134). Clearly, this is a rather casual mode of philosophical reasoning. As Dr. Ward maintains that there is such a thing as human nature and that he knows what that nature is, he asserts that the function of education is to aid in its realization and development. In large part, his book is a consideration from varying perspectives of the manner in which this function of education ought to be carried out. For the popular audience with Thomistic inclinations, for example, parochial secondary school teachers, Dr. Ward's book could provide interesting and valuable support for the concept of a liberal education; however, for the professional philosophers, including Thomists, his book would be found lacking in both its method and content. B~c~. Gimsz~E McGiU University The Theory o] Relativity and A Priori Knowledge. By Hans Reichenbach. Trans., with Introduction , by Maria Reichenbach. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1965. Pp. xliv + 116. $5.00.) This work represents a stage (1920) in Reichenbach's thinking about the philosophical implications of relativity theory earlier than the well-known Philosophy o] Space and Time of 1927. Its principal interest lies in the connection revealed between the roughly positivist thinking of Reichenbach on epistemological issues and the philosophy of Kant. Especially interesting is Reichenbach's attempt to purge Kant's view of its apodictic a priorism, substituting for it a concept of the a priori as principles of reason, holding for a given world and given observers. The book clearly exhibits also the great impact of relativity theory (and particularly its more dramatic experimental confirmations) on the development of positivist ideas about verification. Nowadays one would be less inclined to place quite so much philosophical weight on the eclipse experiment, perhaps, but it is interesting to see in these pages how the great excitement over the special and general theory colored, if it did not create, the epistemology and philosophy of science of the Vienna circle. The way in which these views emerged as the result of a not entirely hostile criticism of Kant is possibly more surprising, and quite illuminating. Maria Reichenbach provides a helpful introduction tracing the evolution of Reichenbach's thought on physics and philosophy and, as a bonus, a few anecdotes of the personal relations between Reichenbach and Einstein. A. R. Louc~ Claremont Graduate School BOOK NOTES Kenneth Burke, Permanence and Change. An Anatomy o] Purpose. Introduction by Hugh Dalziel Duncan. Indianapolis, New York, Kansas City: Bobbs-MerriU Co., Inc. [1965]. ix + 294 pp. The Library of Liberal Arts, 207, $1.95. This is a reprint of the second, revised version (Los Altos, Calif. : Hermes Publications, 1954) of a work that first appeared in 1935. But the thirty-page, new Introduction by Hugh Dalziel Duncan provides an important critical commentary on the continued value of Burke's researches on symbolism, the philosophy of language, and what Rueckert called "Logology," and what Duncan calls "Burke's dramatistic model of human relations" (p. xhv). Johnson E. Fairchild, ed., Basic Belie#. A Simple Presentation o] the Religious Philosophies o] Mankind. New York: Hart Publishing Co., Inc., 1959. 192 pp. $125. This is a reprint of the Sheridan House pubhcation in 1959 of a series of lectures delivered at Cooper Union, New York, by John A. Hutchison, Philip K. Hitti, Joseph Campbell, William ...