Philosophy and Contemporary Man, 1968, and Current Issues in Modern Philosophy, 1969 ed. by George F. McLean, O. M. I., Studies in Philosophy and the History of Philosophy, Vol. 4. 1969 ed. by John K. Ryan (review)

BOOK REVillWS 363 Golem myth to point up the fearsome potential of blind technology. Technology is the vehicle by which men's goals, men's loves, are realizedand " Two loves built two cities." The secular city is a conceivable product of technology. Yet to one living in the latter third of the 20th century, it might appear that "man making himself " tends to botch the job. The philosophic base and values of the technical society in its secular version seem infirm, and the anguish that Bergson once suggested seems not unjustified. Only a technology informed by right reason, art, and prudence, bears promise for the future. M. Ebacher does not raise these latter issues but seeks to understand and elucidate his subject on its own terms. His work is scholarly, clear and firm in its conclusions. It seems somewhat overwritten in the sense that a great weight of analysis is often directed at minor points. It is often redundant as the same matter is brought out at successive stages of the author's development. Perhaps the essential argument could have been treated almost as well in a substantial article. Nevertheless, this book is of considerable value in clarifying a specific aspect of the thought of Bergson and illuminating the conceptual origins, the metaphysical, psychological, and value premises of much contemporary evolutionary thought. The Catholic Univi!Tsity of America Washington, D. C. CHARLES R. DECHERT Philosophy and Contemporary Man, 1968, and Current Issues in Modern Philosophy, 1969. Edited by GEoRGE F. McLEAN, 0. M. I. Washington, D. C.: The Catholic University of America Press. Pp. 193 each. $7.95 each. Studies in Philosophy and the History of Philosophy, Vol. 4. 1969. Edited by JoHN K. RYAN. Washington, D. C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1969. Pp. 232. $7.50. The workshops in philosophy held at Catholic University early each summer have come to serve as a barometer for the changing atmosphere of the profession among one segment of Americans practicing this art. There may be a tendency to identify this group as Catholic by religious persuasion and therefore scholastic in orientation. The reasoning here would be true on the whole, yet there have always been notable violators of the pact: one thinks of Brownson and W. M. Urban. The volumes under review harbinger an opening to thought structures and approaches which bring to mind men such as these two. 864 BOOK REVIEWS The two volumes of papers issuing from the 1966 Workshop are not reduced in relevance by the passage of time alone; the philosophical world lives with a lower pulse rate than do other areas of knowledge. Indeed, if there is a pervasive spirit in these Proceedings, it is precisely that such a gap exists, and that there is considerable wherewithal within the writers' tradition to bridge it, if it can be but utilized. Philosophy and Contemporary Man divides its attention between the problems of relating philosophy, located primarily within the liberal arts curriculum, with the ever-evolving methodologies of the " hard " and " soft " sciences. Five papers range over the physical and social sciences, culture, art, and psychoanalysis. Taken together, these presentations offer considerable material for explicating the current clash between scientific and " philosophic " methods, on the one hand, and the person-oriented stress on the intuitive which is seen developing today in counterpoint to technology. Another section of this study offers four papers on specifically Christian thought and its ramifications, or lack of such, on the contemporary mind. Here we are suplied with reportata from an incisive panel discussion of the interaction of person and society from historical, epistemological and metaphysical perspectives. Still another section of this volume takes up the question of theism in American culture. Three essays are given over to the pragmatists' view of religion and the originality of this native product. Consequences are seen in the recent " death of God " furor which will affect the future of American religious thought in directions yet undetermined . The second volume produced from the 1966 Workshop attempts to relate the changing philosophical temper in this country with the education of the Catholic clergy. The Current Issues in Modern Philosophy, then, is to be understood in this framework. Today...