Scolastique: certitude et recherche. En Hommage à Louis-Marie Régis ed. by Ernest Joós (review)

208 LEITERS IN CANADA 1980 radical thought among the bourgeoisie of the liberal professions in the nineteenth century. But there is still work to be done. There is not a single reference to philosophy at McGill, that Quebec institution which tolerated , barely, the philosopher john Clark Murray, a defender of women and workers. And one awaits with interest a book as admirable as Lamonde's on the period 1920-80. Lamonde's work should be of interest to philosophers as well as historians. just as the philosophy ofscience has been radically changed in the last two decades by a new fusion with the history of science, so too other aspects of philosophy could be changed by a new relation with a kind of sociology of philosophy. Lamonde's work is of the same genre as Kuklick's The Rise of American Philosophy (1860-1930). The hypothesis is that the institutionalization of a discipline affects both its matter and its manner, and that to treat these as platonic entities affected only by their internal logic is a mistake. What is needed is evidence, such as Lamonde has provided, to confirm the hypothesis. (J.T. STEVENSON) Ernest J06s, editor. Scolastiqlle: certitude et recherche. En Hommage aLouis-Marie Regis Bellarmin. 211. $12.00 Itis pleasingto welcome this volume ofessays in honour ofone of the most distinguished contemporary Canadian philosophers. Professor Regis's thought has always been grounded in a profound study of Aristotle and St Thomas Aquinas, and his contributions to Aristotelian and Thomistic scholarship are well known. But, as the editor ofthis volume, Ernest j06s, points out, Regis has above all been a follower of the spirit of these great philosophers of the past and has been particularly concerned to take the point of departure for his own philosophy from the cultural and philosophical preoccupations of our own times. Also in the spirit of Aquinas and Aristotle, however, he is no historical relativist and has looked to modem preoccupations in order to make a critical examination of their presuppositions. This critical examination tends to raise fundamental metaphysical questions that have not always been welcome to all modem philosophers. The scholastic method, as it were, of Regis does not, though, conclude with the dogmatic pronouncementofmetaphysical doctrine against which all modern thought is found wanting. His emphasis is on the comprehension and understanding of modern positions that can result from a continuing critical comparison of metaphysical presuppositions. This methodological point of view is implied in the contrast between, indeed delicate balancing of, certitude et recherche, as indicated in the title of this collection of essays. As the editor remarks, the contributions to the volume are written in HUMANITIES 209 much the same spirit as that which characterizes Regis's own work. The title, taken from the contribution of Father Marie-Dominique Chenu OP not only describes the life and work of Regis, but 'il exprime egalement I'esprit des autres contributions par ce qu'elles ont en commun, la certitude, c'est-ii-dire une metaphysique, mais qui esten meme temps recherche, car elle reverifie constamment ses presupposes et ses reponses ala lumiere des nouvelles decouvertes.' These contributors are certainly not members of some rigidly defined school, nor is there a dogmatic metaphysical position running through the book. Rather they, like the philosopher they honour, are concerned to compare modern positions with those of philosophers of the past. The length and scope of the book are modest, but it contains much good scholarship and much good critical metaphysics . The volume begins with the short piece which contributes to its title, 'Foi: certitude et recherche' by Chenu. Here the tension between certitude and recherche is considered in an explicitly theological context. This is followed by a contribution from Etienne Gilson. Because of the state ofhis health when this volume was being planned (indeed he died some time before its appearance) Gilson was unable to contribute a new essay, but he authorized the republication of his appendix to Being and Some Philosophers, 'On Some Difficulties of Interpretation: in which he replied to critical comments that had been made by Regis. The other contributions to the volume are 'Logique etepistemologie du signe chez Aristote et chez les...