The Principles of Psychology (review)

270 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY being-with into the complex (and moral) notion of "community" (p. 131). Authenticity is then identified with "the good life" and in accord with Aristotle's observation that it is possible "only within a community" specifically organized to support it (p. 176). In view of the repeated identification of subject(ivity) as inherently selfish and egoistic, it is remarkable that at the end we are assured that the fulfillment of the quest for authenticity is to be found in the teachings of Zen Buddhism---condemned by the Chinese neo-confucianists as inherently "selfish" and by Chu Hsi as an outlook that "from the very start wipes out all moral principles completely." Notably, the discussion of Heidegger's encounter with National Socialism--which apparently led to his substitution of "releasement" (in which "there is no longer an conscious ego" [p. 247]) for the "resoluteness" of the Weimar period--is devoid of any moral evaluation or any intimation that there might properly be one. One may join this reviewer in lack of sympathy for the notion of"releasement"-who is "released" in the act of "releasement"?--and many of Heidegger's other turns. But this should not foreclose an appreciation of the (early) Heideggerian contribution to a philosophic understanding "of the full force of personality" (p. ~66) and the insights brought to the "universal problem of individuation" (p. 133). Although one might have hoped the author would have noted the conceptual conflicts between these and other themes developed and have given them more specification, Zimmerman has lucidly brought out these facets of Heidegger's thinking. When all is said and done, however one may evaluate the lack of critical reflection , one will find the exposition to be remarkably scholarly, often insightful. It is an able chronicle of Heidegger's journey from what I take to be his early Kantianism to his own developed vision of the possibility of celestial communion. CHARLES M. SHEROVER Hunter College, CUNY William James. The Principles of Psychology. 3 w)ls. Intro. by Gerald E. Myers and Rand B. Evans. The Works of William James Ed. Frederick Burkhardt, Fredson Bowers and Ignas K. Skrupskelis. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1981. Pp. lxviii + 174o. $75.oo the set. The Principles of Psychology (1890) represents the eighth title in The Works of William James, a critical edition which is to include all of James's published and unpublished writings, except letters. The first seven volumes having dealt with James's philosophical works, the Principles, his acknowledged masterpiece, is the first of the psychological volumes to be released. It now appears as a three-volume set: the original two volumes of James's text and notes, supplemented by a third, substantial volume of notes, appendices, apparatus and general index. In preparing the first comprehensive, critical edition of James's works, the editors have been faced with the difficult task of coordinating a body of writings which was first produced piecemeal by James, and then brought together in varied ways and BOOK REVIEWS 271 forms. James's primary unit of thought and production was the essay, in which he focussed on a particular problem or thesis. The majority of his books, including those not designated as essay-collections, contain a combination of texts drawn from lectures and articles written at different times and tailored to the specific purpose or audience at hand. Because our understanding of such composite works will be significantly affected by the way they are edited, the treatment of the source essays and documents calls for some close consideration. Although James denied that the Principles was merely a collection of essays, and rejected this as an explanation for its apparent lack of systematic unity, he had, in fact, worked out most of his ideas in essays written over a period of twelve years, and incorporated many discussions still geared to the language and viewpoint of their earlier contexts. In some cases, these may lie side by side with new, or more thoroughly reworked materials, so that both within and between chapters there are unsignaled shifts in meaning or levels of analysis. When this is kept in mind, many of the inconsistencies and confusions so easily found...