The Existentialists: A Critical Study by James Collins, The Existentialist Revolt by Kurt F. Reinhardt (review)

658 BOOK REVIEWS The Existentialists: A Critical Study. By James Collins. Chicago: Regnery, 1959.!. Pp. 9.!68 with index. $4.50. The Existentialist Revolt. By Kurt F. Reinhardt. Milwaukee: Bruce, 1952. Pp. 254 with index. $3.50. Catholic scholars have long held the very front ranks in the task of interpreting and assessing the existentialists. Dialectical materialism has had several champions in Europe and one in this country to come to grips with one or other of the recent existentialists, and idealism has had a few stalwarts like de Ruggiero and Kraenzlin to oppose the new generation of Kierkegaardians; from the viewpoint of the contemporary logicians, Carnap and Ayer have taken issue with Heidegger in rather minor skirmishes, while the typical American naturalist has generally ignored even the incisive criticism of Jaspers despite the dues of Marjorie Grene in Dreadful Freedom that there is a rapprochement between certain phases of existentialism and of pragmatism. Catholics, on the other hand, can stake a claim to an effective literature on the subject of the existentialists, in nearly all languages. Dr. Collins and Dr. Reinhardt have now supplied the English-speaking world with worthy successors to the books of European Catholics like Haecker, Moeller, Lotz, De Waehlens, de Tonquedec, and Jolivet. Both Collins and Reinhar(lt have brought to their work the tools of long study and reflection on existentialism. Writing in numerous American reviews, Collins has been helpful for more than a decade in interpreting existentialists for Catholics in this country; besides his :~;ecent studies of existentialism from afar, Reinhardt is a former student of Husserl, Heidegger, and Jaspers. Both authors have studied the existentialists with understanding and sympathy and the ambition to find positive achievements. Comparing existentialists and philosophers like Augustine and Aquinas, Collins says in his preface: "All these men are occupied with the same generic sort of problems, the problems of existing men, despite the enormous differences in historical situation and technique." Reinhardt's preface says, "It has long been the author's conviction (which he shares with many contemporary Thomists) that in their emphasis (and often over-emphasis) on the concrete ' historicity ' of human existence and in their revolt against an abstract 'essentialism' (or idealism), the modern 'existentialists' may aid in the rediscovery of long-forgotten or neglected philosophic truths." Both of these useful volumes cover roughly the same terrain: Kierkegaard , Nietzsche, Husserl, Sarte, Jaspers, Marcel, and Heidegger. The first three form the introductory chapter in Collins' work but appear in the main body of Reinhardt's. Collins treats Heidegger last on the grounds that the greatest potentiality for positive progress in existentialism lies here; Reinhardt follows the more usual order in books of this sort by culminating his historical treatment with Marcel. The similarity of these two books is further emphasized by the concluding chapters in each, " The BOOK REVIEWS 659 Thematic Structure of Existentialism" (Reinhardt) and" Five Existential Themes." (Collins) Each volume contains a bibliography; in the case of the Collins book, there are helpful subdivisions in terms of the sources, translations, and studies appropriate to the philosophers treated. Un~ fortunately, Collins' publisher has chosen to consign the illuminating footnotes to the rear of the book to make ihe scholarly reading of a work of this sort more difficult than it would normally be. Each of the two books has a combined index of topics and names. But despite their mechanical similarities, these two welcome volumes do more than overlap; they supplement each other in presentation, in emphasis, and in critical comment. Collins, for instance, shows throughout a philosophical mood that will recommend his book to those already familiar with existentialism; Reinhardt's work shows greater, though not over-burdening, attention to historical and biographical factors and will be of use to the uninitiated as well as to the scholar. Collins takes frequent occasion to point up problems that existentialism cannot answer or that the Thomist can answer better; Reinhardt's evaluations are broader and more general. Both authors seem agreed that the chief contribution of existentialism so far has been to recall philosophy to the concrete; they seem hopeful that there may be a common ground between this central inspiration of modern existentialism and the...