A Commentary on Jean-Paul Sartre's "Critique of Dialectical Reason." Volume 1, Theory of Practical Ensembles (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 167 anthropology. In chapter 4 he explores Mill's philosophy of education; he shows how Mill's traditional empiricism, which is based on the conception of experience as a private field of passively received atomic sensations and on the conception of mind governed by the principles of the association of ideas, does not provide an adequate foundation for education. Hence, like Locke, Mill conceived the tasks of education to consist in the development of innate faculties in individuals. By contrast, and more correctly, Dewey held that education involves the development of habits determined by the interaction of organism and environment. Chapter 5 is devoted to an examination of Dewey's conception of social intelligence . It is, I think, the core of Gouinlock's scholarly achievement in this succinct and splendid book. Few, if any, interpreters of Dewey can match Gouinlock's mastery of the subject. Of course, this is not to say that there are no problems with Dewey's theory. Dewey's call for the application of scientific method to social and moral problems ignores the radical distinction between scientific and evaluative discourse, a distinction he himself recognized in such works as Experienceand Nature when he differentiated philosophy as criticism from scientific knowledge. Still, as Gouinlock notes, there are remarkable affinities between Dewey's thought and the critical philosophy of Jfirgen Habermas3 This is a topic that has been investigated by Richard Bernstein and Richard Rorty, but, in view of Gouinlock's persuasive reservations, it deserves additional examination. The final chapter contains Gouinlock's judicious assessment of the challenge from Mill and Dewey on the issue of excellence in public discourse. Gouinlock sums up the points in common and the differences between his two great figures. The reader may sense that Gouinlock himself is disappointed with the current state of public discourse, and that he is less hopeful than Mill and Dewey that "virtually everyone can somehow be raised to a level of competence, if not excellence, as participants in democratic life."~ Nevertheless, Gouinlock points to Mill and Dewey as thinkers who may guide us through our difficulties. Nearly seventy pages of appendices, consisting of excerpts from the writings of Mill and Dewey, take up almost as much space as Gouinlock's own text (8o pages). In sum, this is a timely book, and for its brevity and relevance it should be read by all those who cherish freedom of thought and expression. ANDREW J. RECK Tulane University Joseph S. Catalano. A Commentary onJean-Paul Sartre's "Critique of DialecticalReason." Volume 1, Theory of Practical Ensembles. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1986. Pp. x + 28~. Cloth, $40.00. Paper, $15.95. Sartre's Critiquede la raisondialectique(1960) was not too well-received in Europe or the United States and its timing was such as to be overpowered by structurafism in France * Ibid., 156, n. 6. 3 Ibid., 79. 168 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 27: I JANUARY I989 and the subsequent post-structuralism. Many of the better studies of Sartre's attempt "to establish a priori the heuristic value of the dialectical method when it is applied to the human sciences" (CRD, 153)--those of Caws, Poster, Flynn and others--appeared after the initial European reaction to a work that displeased many existentialists, most Marxists, and all structuralists. Because of the rush to surpass Sartre's existential Marxism , Catalano's detailed and extensive commentary is valuable as a reminder of the scope and ambition of Sartre's project and of its complexity. With patience and conscientiousness, Catalano guides us through the thicket of Sartre's methodological program, his critique of dogmatic Marxism and the dialectic of nature, and his metastasizing technical terminology. As is appropriate in such a commentary , the author is sympathetic to Sartre's aims, patient with his numerous comments about what he is doing, and tolerant of his many displays of a complex socio-historical dialectic rendered intelligible. Although Catalano sticks pretty closely to exposition and commentary, he quite often injects a fair amount of interpretation of Sartre's text and theories. The relationship between the Critiqueand Being and Nothingness(on which Catalano wrote a commentary which appeared in 198o) is referred...