Brief Notices

BRIEF NOTICES Science and Wisdom. By JACQUES MARITAIN. Trans. by BERNARD WALL. New York: Sheed & Ward, 1940. Pp. ~41. $8.00. This is really two books, or a book with a rather long and quite unnecessary appendix. The title refers to the first part of the l!ook, which contains three chapters: Science and Wisdom; The Philosophy of Nature; Philosophy in Faith. We find in these chapters a brief and clear summation of several previous works by M. Maritain. The reader will find here an excellent introduction to Maritain's thought on many modern problems. The second part of the work, entitled: "Reflections on Moral Philosophy ," might be considered an extension of the third chapter mentioned above: Philosophy in Faith. It contains a defense of the idea that there can be no true moral philosophy (as a practico-practical science) unless it be subalternated to revealed theology. Here the author is defending an opinion, expressed more fully elsewhere, against the objections of two theologians. The ordinary reader will feel somewhat lost in this section, but it contains many valuable passages. We should like to call attention to three: the special work of the moral philosopher as distinct from the moral theologian (p. 117) ; the relation of the empirical sciences of culture, such as history, sociology, etc., to moral philosophy (p. 168); and, finally, the passages concerned with the ethical conditions of human thinking (p. 205). A Preface to Metaphysics. By JACQUES MARITAIN. New York: Sheed & Ward, 1989. Pp. 152. $1.75. "It is not enough to employ the word being, to say 'Being.' We must have the intuition, the intellectual perception of the inexhaustible and incomprehensible reality thus manifested as the object of this perception. It is this intuition that makes the metaphysician " (p. 44) . This small work may well be called a vademecnm of metaphysical contemplation. In seven chapters M. Maritain gives us the fruit of his profond knowledge of the object of metaphysics. Every paragraph, every sentence, holds the attention of the mind, and provides an insight into the mystery of being. The plan of the work is extremely simple. The first chapter, an introduction , repeats the author's well-known defense of Thomistic metaphysics , and here especially valuable is the distinction between " mystery " and " problem." The next three chapters contain a masterly meditation on the meaning of Being. First, he considers what being is not-not " the particularized being of the sciences inferior to metaphysics, the vague being of common sense, the being divested of reality which is the subject 172 BRIEF NOTICES 178 of logic and the pseudo-being of a misconceived and decadent logic " {p. 42) . Then follow two chapters on " Being as such " and on some of the characteristics of being. The last three chapters consider the first principles of being-identity, sufficient reason, finality and causation. Maritain has written no better wor~ than this Preface to Metaphysics. Nature and Functions of Authority. {The Aquinas Lecture, 1940),. By YVEs SIMoN. Milwaukee: Marquette Univ. Press, 1940.. Pp. 78. $1.50. Yves Simon approaches. here one of the most fundamental practical problems of our day-where are we to place the limits of authority and freedom? Most men see the problem in the form of a dilemma; either we deny freedom to individuals and extend the authority of the state, or we drastically restrict the authority of the state and leave the individual with complete freedom. We must choose between individualism, or the laissezfaire attitude, and authoritarianism, or collectivism. There are historical reasons for this difficulty. Revolt against authority, of the Church, the state, and the family, has brought about impressive material and social progress, through individual efforts. However, there is another side to the picture; the ruthlessness of these individual efforts has created social and economic conditions that weigh heavily on the majority of men and cause the totalitarian reaction against individualism. In this short work the author asks himself " whether it is possible to find out principles to which we can make appeal in our endeavor to proportion exactly authority and liberty in any given situation" {p. 41). By an analysis of the field in which authority works (the practical order) and by a distinction between...