Churchmen and Philosophers. From Jonathan Edwards to John Dewey (review)

BOOr nEvxzws 453 historically of certain themes from the [title], the question being not from whom [author] derived his theses and how they stand in relation to others' theses, but what instruction we should derive from them, and how we should stand in relation to them; not why [author] came to think what he thought, but whether, in thinking it, he was right" (234). Nevertheless, this attitude pervades most of the essays in the collection. Perhaps such an ahistorical perspective would be less disappointing here if one were convinced that any philosophical work can be adequately assessed (Is the author right or wrong?) in such isolation. I should think that the right to assess presupposes the duty of understanding, and that seeing historical works in context is a sine qua non of understanding. Of course, in the end we want to know what Hume can teach us, but we will learn more if we remember that Hume--whatever his hopes about posterity-was not speaking to us, but to his contemporaries, and that more often than not his positive views are built on, and of, the rubble of the views he had demolished. Thus, I cannot help thinking that even so fine an essay as P~illS. ,A, rdal's "Hume and Reid on Promise, Intention, and Obligation," would have been more compelling had Hume's views been presented in relation to, for example, those of the natural lawyers who preceded him; several other essays here cry out for such historical substance. The problem with a multi-authored collection is that it is just that, and consequently each author is restricted, so to speak, to a philosophical short story when at least a novella may be needed. Of the twelve essays not yet mentioned, four strike me as work that will repay further efforts by their authors: "Natural Sociability and Natural Rights in the Philosophy of Gerschom Carmichael" (James Moore and Michael Silverthorne); "Philosophical Types in Hume's Dialogues" (Michael Pakaluk); "Opinion, Sentiment and Approval in Adam Smith" (George Morice); and "An Outline of the Philosophy of James Hutton" (Peter Jones---who, as he well knows, gives us only the vestigeof a beginning). Two essays, "Hume's Volitions" (John Bricke), and "From Moral Philosophy to Political Economy: the Contribution of Dugald Stewart" (Knud Haakonssen) are, in effect, addenda to their authors' already published work (Hume's Philosophy of Mind and The Science of a Legislator: The Natural Jurisprudence of David Hume and Adam Smith, respectively), and hence seem relatively complete. Haakonssen 's essay, by the way, is one of only two (that by Moore and Silverthorne is the other) that meet the historical standard set by George Davie. DAVID FATE NORTON Institute for Advanced Study Bruce Kuklick, Churchmen and Philosophers.FromJonathan Edwards toJohn Dewey. New Haven: Yale University Press, x985. Pp. xx+311. $27.5o. This book appears to be Professor Kuklick's attempt to redress the imbalance in his previous work, The Rise of American Philosophy,~which might have been titled The Rise Bruce Kuklick. The Rise of AmericanPhilosophy.Cambridge,Massachusetts,186o-x93o (New Haven: Yale University Press, a977). 454 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 25:3 JULY t987 of Harvard Philosophy. He can largely ignore Harvard in this volume by focussing on early theology and religious thought and on John Dewey. The connecting links between Jonathan Edwards and Dewey are asserted early on when Kuklick says that Edwards "believed that the supernatural was conveyed in experience: he was an experimental Calvinist" (32) and that "in describing this graceinfused behavior [Christian practice] Edwards most clearly collapsed the distinction between reflection and sensation, between inner and outer, mind and the world" (34). Edwards's thought is traced through the New England Theology, which, according to Kuklick, "represents the most sustained intellectual tradition in the United States" (43). Its three stages are said to be: (1) the era of the individual teacherclergyman , notably such as Joseph Bellamy, Samuel Hopkins, and Nathaniel Emmons , (2) the rise of Yale divinity under Nathaniel William Taylor, and (3) the period of Union Seminary led by Henry Boynton Smith and Andover from Leonard Wood to Edwards Amasa Park. Also there is discussion of Presbyterianism as...