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BRIEF NOTICES Science Ver8U8 Pkilosopky, by F. G. CoNNOLLY. Philosophical Library: New York, 1957. Pp. 90. $8.75. After all that has been said about the relationship between science and philosophy, the interested student might still be looking for a brief summary of the different views and a convincing solution to the vexing problem. In this little book there is a good statement of the various positions, together with the generous offer of a compromise theory, but no attempt at demonstrating a conclusion. The author treats briefly of science in relation to all the other disciplines; to philosophy both speculative and moral, to mathematics, to the arts and the social sciences, to theology and even to the supernatural virtues and gifts. The correlations which he points out would be useful for the integration 'of knowledge if the various parts could be united in an organized whole. All depends upon the theory, and this is explained in the sixth chapter. Here the author accepts the view that modem non-mathematical science is entirely different from the philosophy of nature, because the analysis typical of natural philosophy ascends toward intelligible being, whereas the analysis in science descends toward sensory reality. He admits that there is a limit to the analysis proper to natural philosophy, and that this discipline is distinct from metaphysics. Moreover, he acknowledges that we cannot differentiate between natural philosophy and science within the order of intellectual knowledge. Hence he proposes that science is substantially of the order of sensitive knowledge achieved by the deliberative imagination. This work of the imagination is called prophysical abstraction , and is the work of a sensory power, not of the intellect. In addition to prophysical abstraction the author admits also physical, mathematical and metaphysical abstraction, although in the last analysis he says that one and the same light is involved in mathematics and in the philosophy of nature. While treating of these delicate matters, the author refers to various texts in the writings of St. Thomas, and he accommodates them to the requirements of his own theory. These Thomistic texts are taken entirely out of context, and there is no effort to follow the method, the· principles, or the major conclusions of St. Thomas in regard to the distinction of the sciences. St. Thomas thought that the accidents and properties of natural things which can be known through experience manifest the essences or natures of these things sufficiently for the purposes of natural philosophy. With this the author does not agree, and so he does not think that the !il85 286 BRIEF NOTICES data of modern science can be assimilated by the principles of natural philosophy. In place of the beautifully organized synthesis developed by St. Thomas, we 1:1.re presented with a dismembered philosophy of nature, a non-rational science of the common sensibles, and with mathematics which share the light both of natural philosophy and of metaphysics. This theory may not satisfy very .many readers, but the author's work does help to show where the difficulties lie and why there are different views of the matter. Dominican HOUIIe of Studies, River Forest, Illinois WILLIAM H. :KANE, O.P. Marriage and the Family. By ALPHONSE H. CLEMENS. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1957. Pp. 368. $6.00. At a time when so many reporters of the American Catholic scene profess to see only the inadequate and seamy sides of Catholic life in America, there are optimistic notes sounding in the realm of marriage and the family. The optimism stems from many indications. Not the least of these is the fact that today, as never before, so many American ·Catholics have come to appreciate the wisdom of knowing about marriage in some scientific fashion in advance of plunging into the married state. More and more it is recognized that there is precious little wisdom in a lengthy, sometimes quite arduous, education for professional life while the more abiding thingmarriage and family life-is prepared for only incic;l.entally and incompletely , if at all. · CatholiCs have always had an exalted ~ew of marriage. That is not to say, however, that we Catholics have always organized our knowledge and coorditlated the natural...

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