Modes of Being by Paul Weiss (review)

410 BOOK REVIEWS intellect actually knowing the thing. He does not deny the existence of the divine exemplary ideas, or that things are conformable to these exemplars; but he denies that the ontological truth of things can consist in anything outside the things themselves. The convertibility of ens and verum is said to be a conclusion dependent on the proof that God knows all things. Some would wish to show this convertibility simply from the nature of the intellect as the faculty of being; but Father Wolter doubts whether it can be shown philosophically that being is the object of the intellect. The reviewer, who holds that being is given to the intellect in its primary operation as its natural object, and that this object is made dear and explicit by philosophical reflection, does not see how metaphysics itself could remain secure if Father Wolter's doubt were seriously entertained . The dosing chapter deals briefly with ontological goodness, and also contains a metaphysical analysis of evil, and a treatment of the beautiful as an attribute of being. There follows a compendium of the conclusions reached in the course of the work, one hundred in number. There are also nine pages of questions for review, sL"r pages of bibliography (including many articles from current periodicals) , an index personarum and an index rerum. AU in all, Father Wolter's Summula Metaphysicae is a vigorous, forthright and living presentation of the views of a modern scholastic who leans towards Scotism but believes in thinking for hin1self, and who is capable of presenting his views and his arguments succinctly, dearly, forcefully. Thomists will find' this compact work a stimulating intellectual experience, and also a challenge to deepen the basis of their own philosophical position. St. Anthony-on-Hudson, Rens.~elaer, New York OwEN BENNETT, 0. F. M. CoNv. Modes of Being. By PAuL WEISS. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1958. Pp. 617 with indexes. $10.00. Common problems face those who would offer a universal explanation of being. One is the need to rationalize the origin or derivation of dependent realities. Related to this is the requirement that the derivation of the many from a posited universal principle be rendered intelligible. This in turn calls for an account of multiplicity and the otherness of things. As well, the oneness of each being with itself must be explained. There is also the necessity that, within the limits of their dependence, the true reality BOOK REVIEWS 411 and causal power of things be safeguarded. The actual exercise of causality on the part of any universal principle must also be accounted for; correlatively , the cosmic status, the necessity or contingency, the ontological func·tion and significance of dependent realities must be determined. At this level, too, the relations among all beings and the kind of unity had by reality as a whole, demands analysis. Modes Of Being, a work in which Paul Weiss presents his developed metaphysical doctrine, is largely devoted to the solution of these and allied problems. Reasonably, too, its criticism of other philosophies turns upon stated deficiencies in their answers to the same problems. The title of the work is accurate; the " modes " in question are both the exhaustive divisions of being and its explanatory principles. They are four in number: Actuality, Ideality, Existence and God. Characterized in general. terms, Actuality is the realm of individual natural substances; Ideality that of essence, intelligibility and value; Existence that of existential actuality and causal power; while God is the providential. being and that in which the other modes have their unified reproduction. The genius of the author's doctrine is suggested, first of all, in the existential status attributed to these modes. Each is seen as a distinct and subsistent reality, "independent ," "final," possessed of "its own nature and integrity," and, most important, "irreducibly ultimate." (pp. 11, 13, Hi, ~77-8) It is the irreducible and subsistent status of every mode that gives distinction to the next element in his system. This is his position on the relationships among the modes. Each mode is such that it needs the others to supplement its own reality, and each is such that it musf contribute to the...