Certitudes et questions de la raison philosophique by Jean Theau (review)

220 LEITERS IN CANADA 1986 Marcel, who with Karl Jaspers was the real pioneer of existentialism, exploring this post-Hegelian way of thinking five or six years before Heidegger published the first part of Being and Time, remains an indispensable thinker because of his willingness to investigate important aspects of human existence which other philosophers neglect. Marcel is not afraid of mystery. His tentative, probing style, his resolute refusal of 'system,' make it possible for him, like Kierkegaard, to be 'fragmentary,' believing as he does that little glimpses of the truth are valuable, even when they serve to heighten rather than dispel mystery. Davignon shows us Marcel at his exploratory best, probing the enormous mystery of evil. These are meditation-provoking pages, beautifully put together by the young Quebec philosopher from texts scattered far and wide in the considerable opus of Marcel. Davignon threads his way through the labyrinth of problems with skill and the sureness of a master of Marcel's thought. The 'philosophical wordbook,' as the Germans might call it, which Simonne Plourde and collaborators (including Davignon, but Jeanne Paray-Vial is the principal co-author) have put together is a valuable instrument de travail. They have built remarkable essays around each of Sixty-three key terms, drawing on insights scattered throughout Marcel's work. I would stress that these are valuable not only as authoritative recapitulations of what Marcel has had to say on each subject but also as thought-provoking reflections on each of the subjects. Someone wishing to reflect, for instance, on vocation, on the nature of contemplation , on grace, or on intersubjectivity will find the respective essays a good place to start. The encyclopaedic references to all the relevant texts in Marcel are exhaustive. The clear outlines and the lucid discussions of each issue are of the highest quality. Both books merit wide translation. (THOMAS LANGAN) Jean Theau. Certitudeset questions de la raison philosophique Philosophica 29: Editions de I'Universite d'Ottawa '985· 540. $34.95 Many voices in our day try to persuade us that philosophy is at an end, metaphysics is at an end. Even conflicting interests conspire in this cause. Those who see our culture as so superior to every other that it has outgrown metaphysics are making common cause with those who see our culture as so debased that it is no longer capable of metaphysics. Philosophical confusion, Ibelieve, is the central hallmark of life in the 1980s. In such a milieu, the new work of Jean Theau is welcome and important. Canadians must rejoice that a work is published here that continues the classical tradition of French philosophy. This is an original work of philosophy that is resolutely foundationalist, and rigorous in the spirit of Descartes and his successors. It is also composed in a prose of great beauty. But it is a work of our time as well - oriented at every point towards the positive sciences, developing a convincing case for the incapacity of philosophy to proceed in separation from the sciences. In fact it is a Canadian document of the philosophia perennis, modern in intent, yet drawing on the ontological richness of the Western metaphysical canon as well as the religious heritage of Christianity. Professor Theau is an expert on Henri Bergson, and while many Canadian readers are aware of the great contributions of Bergson, they might not realize that there is a living and continuing tradition of Bergsonian thought. This book opens their eyes. Theau proposes a Bergsonian metaphysics that seeks to perpetuate the central themes of the mainstream Western tradition. At the heart of metaphysics since Aristotle is the doctrine of categories. Although many have mistaken this doctrine for a mere division of kinds or a sort of scala naturae, Theau shows with great clarity that the doctrines ofAristotle and Kant alike go much deeper than that - categories are ways . of being, not just divisions of entity. Only if we have grasped the general question of being, especially the issue of the relationship between intellectand being, can we adumbrate any doctrine of categories. His chapter2 derives the general problematic of categories out of the fundamental issue of our understanding of being; subsequent chapters develop detailed...