The Philosophy of Edmund Husserl. The Origin and Development of His Phenomenology by E. Parl Welch (review)

BOOK REVIEWS to be statements of fact about the nature of God and the world. " The point I shall endeavor to establish is that these statements about God the Creator are not, as is usually supposed, a set of arbitrary mystifications irrelevant to human life and thought. On the contrary, whether or not they are true about God, they are, when examined in the light of direct experience, seen to be plain witnesses of truth about the nature of the creative mind as such and as we know it" (p. xiii). In other words, Miss Sayers attempts to trace the image of the Trinity in the mind of the creative artist, We should be most happy to report that Miss Sayers' courageous venture is completely successful. We are well aware that the richness of the divine life cannot be embraced within one set of analogies. Miss Sayers' explanations of the Trinity are not traditional; they do not take into consideration the Scriptural hints as to the inner meaning of the Three Persons of the Trinity, hints that have been utilized by Augustine and others. That is, in itself, not condemnation of Miss Sayers. However, we feel that her explanation of the human creative process would have benefited by a deeper penetration of the traditional analogies. According to St. Augustine {and there is adequate scriptural basis for his interpretations), God the Father is the substantial principle of the Deity, God the Son is the Eternal Idea or Image of the Father, God the Holy Ghost is the substantial Love of the Father and the Son. According to Miss Sayers, the personal traits are rather and Power. In scmtinizing the creative process of the of these three show some weaknesses. A deeper penetration of the theological explanations would have clarified the artistic analogies. After all, the theological analogies were illuminated to a great extent by the introspections of great creative writers. Apart from the theological weaknesses, the book is a treasury of wise observations on the mind of the creative artist. Perhaps it will serve as an inspiration to other writers to present the traditional dogmas of Christianity under new dialectical forms. The world is before us; it can easily be drawn up into the unity of the Triune God, while preserving its own uniqueness. Dominican House of Studies, Washington, D. C. JAMES M. EGAN, O.P. The Philosophy of Edmund Husserl. The Origin and Development of His Phenomenology. By E. PARL WELCH. New York: Columbia University Press, l94L Pp. xxiv + 337. It is difficult to report on a book which is itself a report on other books and works. A summary of the contents in such a case amounts to a small- 540 BOOK REVIEWS scale reproduction of the author's summary and is the less informative the more objective the author's report is. There can be no doubt that Husserl's philosophy deserves more attention than it has found, on the average, with American philosophers until now. The reasons for this are partly the lack of translations, the difficulty of the matter, and an unawareness of the influence this philosophy has exercised on many thinkers (in Europe, and also in Latin .America) , partly the reluctance which many show to consider any philosophy avowedly " non-scientific." A recent review of a volume of essays in commemoration of Husserl stated bluntly that this philosophy was not worth considering, since it appeals to " intuition," instead of to methods in accordance with the scientific spirit. Unfortunately this review overlooked the fact that Husserl did not want to replace scientific observation and method by intuition in the field of science, but that he denied the legitimacy of such methods in the field of philosophy. Whatever the result may be, it ought to be worth while at least to find out why a mind as penetrating as Husserl's, and one moreover schooled in mathematics, assumes such a position. Mr. Welch attempts to clarify the way Husserl went from his first great work on the Philosophy of Arithmetic to his later and latest writings on pure philosophy. He sees in Husserl mainly a student of epistemology and logic, not a philosopher concerned with the ultimate...