One Hundred Years of Philosophy ed. by Brian J. Shanley, O.P. (review)

488 BOOK REVIEWS Despite some such flaws, Murphy's Art and Intellect in the Philosophy of Etienne Gilson is a significant intellectual achievement and major contribution to Gilson studies. It is a terrific introduction to Gilson the man at work as a historian and Christian philosopher. It is a superblywritten, beautiful, book that manifests a deep penetration ofthe principles that guided Gilson throughout his personal life and professional career. Moreover, its aesthetic quality matches its intellectual depth. For this reason, it is a work in which, I think, Gilson would take much delight and many others will too. PETER A. REDPATH St. John's University Staten Island, New York One Hundred Years ofPhilosophy. Edited by BRIANJ. SHANLEY, O.P. Studies in Philosophy and the History of Philosophy 36. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University ofAmerica Press, 2001. Pp. 311. $49.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-8132-0997-8. The fourteen essays contained in this book provide knowledgeable reflection on aspects of a whole century of philosophy. They are papers collected by Brian Shanley, O.P., on selected areas oftwentieth-century philosophy and of Catholic thought, aimed also to indicate the breadth of interests of the School of Philosophy at The Catholic University ofAmerica, whose centenary (1996) was marked by lectures that included these topics. Some of the essays are significant contributions toward organizing and orienting scholarship (for instance, Timothy Noone on scholarship on medieval philosophy); some are notable expositions and evaluations (e.g., Robert Sokolowski on phenomenology, and William Wallace on philosophy ofscience). Some are broad interpretations and controversial appraisals of the significance of various stages (e.g., Thomas Russman on British philosophy, and Frederick Crosson on Catholic social thought). Some are written in a style I find offputting , with metaphorical personifications like "the person transcends the conditions offinitude of the self and the world in the unthematic pre-conception of absolute being itself"(140, in an essay by Kenneth Schmitz), and editorial adverbs, like "More importantly, precisely in the" at the start of the quoted sentence. Some are oracular about options that seem to me contrived, for instance, Robert Spaemann says, "Christianity needs philosophy in order to assert itself in the modern world," "Christianity must prefer realistic philosophers" (179) and other hypostasizing of abstractions (cf. Sokolowski's criticism of that on p. 214) and the metaphorical use of "must" applied to Christianity. BOOK REVIEWS 489 Some essays have narrower scope but great interest, like Daniel Dahlstrom's account of developments of aesthetic theory both in analytic and continental thought and their application even to social criticism. He correlates the philosophy with phases of art that a nonspecialist might not easily see are connected. Eugene Long recounts tendencies in British-American philosophy of religion that he explains as follows: "the advance of the physical and social sciences, the increasing respectability of materialism and a general turning away from speculative metaphysics prepares the way for a new century of philosophy of religion more focussed on the empirical and the particular than the ideal and the universal"(269). It seems to me that it wasn't all that particular and empirical and that philosophers actually accomplished the restoration of a high standard of philosophical theology (e.g., in the journal, Faith and Philosophy}, and the renovation of the epistemology of religious commitment, as well as a notably cooperative common discipline among scholars of different strands of Christianity who share a high degree of technical philosophical skill. Robert George surveys the controversy over moral foundations of law from Holmes, through the legal realists, the legal positivists, H. Hart, the moral realism of J. Raz, Fuller's notion of the "internal morality" of law, and Ronald Dworkin's "right answer" thesis, ending with an endorsement of "the Thomistic proposition that just positive law is derived from natural law"(93). Lastly, A. S. Cua describes the work of three major Chinese scholars writing the history of Chinese philosophy, Hu Shih, Fung Yu-Lan, and Lao Szu-kwang, who write influenced by distinct Western viewpoints on what philosophy is and what competent philosophy involves. My comments here will be limited to four ofthe essays. The selection should not be taken to slight the interest of the others...