Metaphysics and Ideology by Wm. Oliver Martin (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 483 of Albert the Great" (pp. 345-390). The saint himself essayed no such unit arrangement, but it flows without forcing from his theological reflections on the mystery of Mary. A shorter version of the conclusions of the final chapter can be found in the article by A. Fries, " Albert der Grosse," in Lexikon der Marienkunde (1957}, Lieferung I, cc. 111-121. The present excellent book is completed by a list of manuscript sources, a table of scriptural references, a list of authors mentioned (the study is full of cross-references to writings that influenced Albert, as well as to his influence on others), and finally a subject-index. In view of the use of this book as a reference tool, the indices are quite valuable. Few readers will have occasion to read Die Gedanken . . . straight through, so that the final extended summary chapter can well be read by itself. If it seemed that Albert Fries, C. Ss. R., was playing an unwilling iconoclast in striking the Mariale super missus est and other titles from the authentic writings of St. Albert, the current assessment of the saint's theological thought on the Mother of God is an amende lwnorable to the devout genius who regarded theology as a science, " which chastely lives within the limits of the faith and does not fall into the dissolution of mere phantasy " (quae casta stat intra limites fidei nee luxuriatur per phantasias). The Catholic UniveTsity of America, Wa8hington, D.C. EAMON R. CARROLL, 0. CARM. Metaphysics and Ideology. By WM. OLIVER MARTIN. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 1959. Pp. 104. $2.50. Karl Marx once said, " the point is not to know the world; the point is rather to change it." This is an utterance of ideology. Whether there is or is not an objective truth-we do not really care. Our vital interest and concern is to agree on that set of ideas and thought patterns which most aptly answers the present need as pre-defined by the ideological system itself. Mr. Aiken echoes the same refrain: "Whether such answers are 'cognitive ' and ' true or false ' in the scientific sense is unimportant. What does matter is that the pictures of reality which they present to us may enable us to organize our energies more adequately for the satisfaction of our total needs as men. Then they will be ' true ' in the only sense of the term which is worth considering." In this book, Dr. Martin warns us that we ought not to confuse ideology in this sense, with philosophy or Metaphysics (for the most part he uses the two terms interchangeably). All philosophy, even a false philosophy is 484 BOOK REVIEWS an endeavor to analyse, to know, to explain. Ideology, in accord with its own confessed purpose, disdains any attempt at knowing. To know is unimportant. Hence, an ideology is not really a false philosophy at all. To consider it as such, is to refuse to take is seriously. Ideology is antiphilosophy . Dr. Martin then sharpens the contrast between philosophy and ideology. What is philosophy? he asks. How may it be recognized? The author answers this question by laying down four marks which, he insists, ought to characterize true philosophy. The marks are: a) autonomy b) continuity c) system d) ade'iuacy. a) Autonomy. This means that Metaphysics (here the word is used to signify the specific branch of philosophy) must possess "its own data, its own formal object." That is to say, it does not derive its subject matter from some other science. Moreover, Metaphysics is grounded in the experiential order of things, though it is not what we would term today, an "experimental" science. Without this first mark, Dr. Martin tells us, Metaphysics lapses into what would more properly be called ideology. b) Continuity. In true philosophy some principles and truths will be recognized and upheld through whatever changes the system may undergo. There is at the same time an allowance for change and even improvement. Thus for example, through the course of time there may occur in the minds of the proponents of this " true philosophy " a gradual growth in the perception of the nature of man. If this...