In a recent article Matty Häyry observes that human reproduction is both irrational and immoral1; hence, he suggests, those who seek help before conceiving, “could be advised it is all right not to have children”. Häyry believes that if prospective parents are told that “according to at least one philosopher it would be all right not to reproduce at all” this could empower people “to make the rational choice to remain childless”; valiantly, he suggests himself as “the one philosopher to (...) be blamed for this unpopular idea”.In a rejoinder to Matty Häyry, Søren Holm claims it is not strongly irrational to have children2; S Aksoy contends that having children is the biggest dream of many married couples, and “the major goal in a couple’s life”3; Rebecca Bennet, accepts that human reproduction may be irrational but in most cases she thinks this is morally defensible.4Matty Häyry does not need my help to defend himself; I will …. (shrink)

v. 1. Irrat͡sionalizm v nemet͡skoĭ filosofii XIX veka -- v. 2. Navstrechu Logosu : problema poznanii͡a v ėkzistent͡sializme i germenevtike.

“The forms of thought are first set out and stored in human language,” we read in the preface to the second edition of Hegel’s Science of Logic. Man thinks through language, and everything he “transforms into language and expresses in it contains a category, whether concealed, mixed, or well defined”. Language, then, harbors thought categories. There is a philosophy of language, but there is also a philosophy implied in language. How is this supposed to work? More specifically, how is this (...) supposed to work in Hegel’s own use of language?This paper is an attempt to give a simple answer to this question. There have been scholarly attempts to tie Hegel’s philosophy to his use of language.1 This paper... (shrink)

Christian offers us a clear and detailed analysis of Whitehead's three primary types of entities: actual occasions, eternal objects, and God. He endeavours to show how Whitehead's account satisfies his own requirements of categoreal explanation and that these three types, together with creativity, require one another. The analysis is focused by a concern for the twin concepts of transcendence and immanence which, while shown to apply to all three types, are seen to be particularly relevant to Whitehead's revision of traditional (...) theology. Christian remains faithful to the text while strenuously probing its inner structure.--L. S. F. (shrink)

Highlighting the relations between De Anima II.5 and De Anima III.4, this paper argues that Aristotle held a surprisingly dynamic view of the intellect. According to this view, the intellect is in...

The authors seek to remedy a double defect: the neglect by philosophers of relevant anthropological material for ethical reasoning, and the neglect by anthropologists of the ethical dimensions of culture. Aware of man's frequent tendency to moralize rather than to be moral, the authors are cautious about endorsing either cultural relativism or the view that varying moral codes each express in local concepts the same underlying morality. This is a tentative study, raising problems and specifying inquiries rather than offering conclusions. (...) Includes an extensive bibliography of the current literature.--L. S. F. (shrink)

This book is "not an 'ethics'," Mackinnon warns us, "but an attempt to study different styles of argument concerning the foundations of morality, by methods sometimes analytic and sometimes historical. It is informed by a desire to bring out some of the ways in which the problem of the possibility of metaphysics impinges on moral reflection." Among other things, he considers Utilitarianism, Kant, The Notion of Moral Freedom, and Butler.--L. S. F.

The findings from an extended series of psychological tests for extra-sensory perception, particularly with respect to psychological attitudes, are presented here. Those who believed in ESP consistently made higher scores than the non-believers. Appendices describe statistical procedures and major hypotheses employed. A careful, conservative study. --L. S. F.

Gründer examines two basic concepts in Hamann's early thought as they appear in informal reading notes: God's condescension in creation and salvation, and the typological interpretation of Biblical history. Gründer also sketches the theological history of each concept, notes the historical context of its use by Hamann, and discusses its ontological implications in a very well documented account. A pioneer study. --L. S. F.

Eleven essays devoted to contemporary perspectives on mysticism, mostly written in the tradition of religious liberalism. Several contributors stress the existentialist contribution to our understanding of mysticism, while N. A. Nikam examines "Some Aspects of Ontological and Ethical Mysticism in Indian Thought." Emerson is considered, along with two less conventional candidates, Whitehead and Wittgenstein, for their relevance to mystical thought. These studies are suggestive rather than definitive.--L. S. F.

Wolff examines all of Plato's dialogues as oblique fragments of a spiritual autobiography, akin to Augustine's Confessions. Plato's encounter with Socrates--not only with his personality and teaching, but also with his trial and death-had decisive importance in shaping Plato's inner development. The later Plato attempted to give a firm foundation to knowledge and morality, but failed, ending in a partially concealed scepticism.--L. S. F.

Arguing that religion and science can not be in essential conflict, Harris sets himself the task of resolving their apparent disagreements by considering such problems as the language of theology, the relation of nature and God, and the nature of evil.--L. S. F.

Nineteen thoughtful essays devoted to the theoretical aspects of sociological investigation: the use of ideal types, the causal concept and the concept of social change, functional analysis, the formalization of theory, and the place of values in sociology. C. Wright Mill's "On Intellectual Craftsmanship" is an engaging and informal account of how one social scientist goes about his business, with a liberal sprinkling of criticisms against the tendency to divorce methodological inquiry from the scientific investigation itself. --L. S. F.

In this essay on the archaic conception of historical being, Eliade has marshalled a wealth of archaeological and anthropological material. Eliade considers not only the more sophisticated versions of eternal return in great years and in cosmic cycles, but also its foundation in the annual cultic rites designed to overcome time. He catches the flavor of archaic ontology very nicely--the ontology which found its philosophical expression in Plato.--L. S. F.

In an effort to document the infiltration of rationalistic and essentialistic patterns of thought in nineteenth century scholasticism, Father Gurr has been patient and thorough enough to search through most of the Catholic manuals in use from 1750 to 1900, focusing on the single problem of the principle of sufficient reason. Whatever the ultimate origins of this principle, it received its classic formulation with Leibniz and Wolff. It is from these thinkers that the manual writers borrowed the concept, disengaging it (...) from its rationalistic implications with only varying degrees of success.--L. S. F. (shrink)

A balanced proclamation of the salvation available in Jesus Christ. Theological complexity is avoided --perhaps necessarily in such a popular work--but the result is disappointing to the critical reader. --L. S. F.

E. F. J. Payne is the first to re-translate Schopenhauer's principal work since Haldane and Kemp's edition of 1883-6. It is a careful translation, staying very close perhaps too close--to Schopenhauer's style and punctuation, but avoiding the errors of literalistic translation. Payne also has the advantage of a far more critical German edition than was available to his predecessors.--L. S. F.