Brief Notices

BHIEF NOTICES Contemporary Philosophy-Studies of Logical Positivism and Existentialism. By the Rev. FREDERICK CoPLESTON, S. J. Westminster, Md.: The Newman Press, 1956. Pp. 9.139. $4.00. The sub-title of this book is more accurately descriptive of the contents than is the title. As that sub-title suggests, the book is divided into two parts. The first contains seven rather disjointed studies o£ specific aspects of logical positivism. These essays are, for the most part, papers read on various occasions, or articles published in various magazines; hence the lack of any very strict unity. One misses particularly any straightforward exposition of what logical positivism is, after the manner of Feiglo's classic exposition, with the result that one has the sense throughout the first of the book of being immersed in tangential studies. This is regrettable because it was Fr. Copleston who called attention, in the last chapter of his Aquinas {Penguin), to the need for Thomists to familiarize themselves with the analytic philosophy, including logical positivism. Yet this first section is not without value. Chapter II (" Some Reflections on Logical Positivism ") is a model of informed and urbane critical evaluation of a vigorous contemporary philosophy, and Chapter VII ("The Meaning of the Terms Predicated of God ") offers a distinction between objective and subjective meaning which makes sense to contemporary intellects of the medieval distinction between divine perfections considered in themselves and the human mode of experiencing (analogically) those perfections. The second part of the book opens with a chapter on Continental personalism (Mounier, Lavelle, Le Senne), and proceeds to a four-chapter exposition of existentialism. This latter is done according to a now standard pattern: an introductory chapter on the themes of existentialism, a chapter on theistic existentialism (Kierkegaard, Jaspers, Marcel), a chapter on atheistic existentialism (Heidegger and Sartre), a concluding critical chapter . The pattern is standard, but the performance is brilliant. What is particularly notable about the concluding chapter is that in it existentialism and analysis confront 'each other in an intellect basically Thomist. This, I suggest, is significant Thomism. As is well-known, Father Copleston has already published a three-volume history of philosophy embracing the pre-Socratics through Suarez. The outstanding merits of that history are the objectivity of its spirit and the humane tone of its scholarship. Father Copleston never fails to do intellectual justice to any position, but he never loses his own center, either. 226 BRIEF NOTICES One hopes that the present volume is part of the raw material of an eventual volume devoted to the history of contemporary philosophy in the same series. Manhattan College, New York, N.Y. JAMEs V. MULLANEY. El Evolucionismo en Filosof£a y Teolog£a. JuAN FLORS, Editor. Barcelona, 1956. Pp. ~60. This work comprises the papers presented at the Congress of Ecclesiastical Sciences, organized by the Pontifical University of Salamanca on the occasion of the Seventh Centenary of its foundation. The section on philosophy and theology has as the central theme of its studies " Evolutionism in Philosophy and Theology": a theme, indeed, of great interest, in the discussion of which some of the most distinguished authorities of the scientific world on this matter, are here collaborating. Evolutionism has become one of the most absorbing problems in modern times. It is true that the question of man's appearance on the earth had been discussed in the past century. But then it scarcely interested theologians and philosophers. Its study was limited to the :fields of natural and exegetical sciences. Today theologians and philosophers also have had to face the problem, spurred by the Encyclical Letter "Humani Generis," which not only marked the path, but also stimulated them to an attentive and profound study of the question. The Congress at Salamanca limited itself to studying anthropological evolutionism, since it offers more difficulties and broader perspectives. For this reason the collaboration of experts in the diverse sciences which have a bearing on the evolutionistic doctrine has been necessary: biblical exegesis, theology and philosophy on the one hand; biology, comparative morphology and paleontology, on the other. The material in this volume is arranged accordingly. The following papers were presented: Present Situation and Sense of the Problem of Evolutionism...