Mystics, Philosophers, and Politicians (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 385 both nature and empirical experience out of the Idea. This is an old and common misapprehension of what Hegel is saying, due to overlooking, and failure to understand , the status in his system of the Philosophy of Nature. For Hegel, without nature there would be no finite spirit, and finite spirit is nothing more nor less than the coming to consciousness of itself as having been generated through the dialectic of nature. But this is only possible if the Idea (as the principle of organization of the whole) is immanent in every aspect and phase of nature; so that which finite spirit brings to consciousness in itself is the Idea. Rosen is so oblivious of this relationship between the major elements of Hegel's system that he imagines Hegel to be arguing for some kind of etherial "hyperintuition" which can generate from itself all reality by a series of emanations--what he castigates as "sheer Neo-Platonic fantasy" (179). Grosset misinterpretation is hardly possible. Quotation makes up about a third (if not more) of Rosen's exposition, and it is by quotation that he mainly supports his case, but as the passages quoted are frequently misconstrued (we have noticed one example), the result is mainly confusion, and even where his interpretation of Hegel is defensible it is used to support the misconception already exposed. Generally, his representation of Hegel is vitiated by a signal failure to appreciate the significance in the dialectic of Aufhebung, the persistence in the more developed of the prior phases, as moments preserved in being negated, so that their finite and self-contradictory aspect is annulled while their positive content is confirmed. Rosen's criticism of Hegel's critics--many of whom misinterpret him in their own special ways--is therefore flawed by his own misconception of what Hegel is saying, and he fails, in consequence, to appreciate the extent to which some commentators (e.g., Bubner and Plant) get Hegel right. The extent to which he interprets the critics themselves rightly or wrongly is a matter into which this review need not enter. Perhaps we may justly conclude with a judgment of Rosen's book similar to his own of Hegel. Adapting his words: "I do not want to suggest by my negative judgment that I have a low opinion of Rosen's philosophical ability... But he is wrong." And I cannot, in all honesty credit him (as he does Hegel) with either of the "cardinal philosophical virtues," rigor or originality. ERROL E. HARRIS Northwestern University Reinharz, Jehuda and Daniel Swetschinski, eds. Mystics, Philosophers, and Politicians. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1982. Pp. xiv + 372. $3~.75 Two books were published to honor Professor Alexander Altmann on his seventieth birthday. The first to appear, Studies inJewish Religious and Intellectual History, edited by Siegfried Stein and Raphael Loewe (University of Alabama Press, 198o), contained articles by Professor Altmann's distinguished colleagues around the world. Written in four languages, it is as broad in scope as the competence of its contributors . The second, Mystics, Philosophers, and Politicians, edited by Reinharz and Swet- 386 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 92:3 JULY ~984 schinski with the collaboration of Kalman Bland, contains articles by Altmann's students . It is an impressive volume, for it represents the finest work of that group. The volume opens with a biographical sketch by Swetschinski which portrays Altmann as a very learned scholar, deeply committed to the Jewish heritage. Altmann 's expertise in three areas, Jewish mysticism, Judaeo-Arabic philosophy, and the German Enlightenment, is nicely conceived and quickly outlined. One misses, though, an evaluation of Altmann's personality. The rest of the articles are arranged in the order of Jewish history and run the gamut from the Dead Sea Scrolls to Rosenzweig and Kant. The volume concludes with a bibliography of Altmann's work and indices. In the opening article, Schiffman presents a text, translation, commentary, and long introduction to a Dead Sea text that "is replete with expressions and motifs met also in later hekahlot traditions" (45)- He points out, however, that this text lacks the ascent and guided tour quality of those texts. Working from the...