A Maréchal Reader ed. by Joseph Donceel

Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS 667 A Marechal Reader. Ed. and trans. by JosEPH DoNCEEL. New York: Herder & Herder, 1970. Pp. ~63. $8.50. Joseph Donceel's edition-translation is a useful volume from one who is most qualified to produce it. In forty-three extracts from Joseph Marechal's five-volume Le point de depart de la rnetaphysique and two later articles Donceel manages to situate ~Iarechal's most important work and to offer a fairly detailed presentation of the advances which were ~Iarechal's contribution to the development of modern Catholic thought. The thirteen extracts from the first three volumes situate the Kantian project between the options of idealism and radical empiricism. Marechal understood Kant's critique as an attempt to develop a third alternative. In this context the brilliance of Marechal's own development of Thomistic intellectual dynamism and completion of Kant's work is evident. The twenty-eight selections from Cahier Five include about a third of this, the most important volume. ~Iarechal's principal theses, especially his development of the dynamism of the intellect through a study of the abstractive and objectifying processes, are set forth. The significance of the unity of sensitive and intellective faculties and the differences in their modes of attaining the object are exposed. Marechal's at times highly original intepretation of St. Thomas's theory of the operation of the agent intellect and the unity of the intellect and will does not distract from the development of the major thesis that understanding is a process of dynamic identification with the object rather than a passive observation. Marechal's major insights into intellectual finality and exploitation of the transcendental method have been seminal for a major segment of contemporary Catholic thought. The problematic of Kantian and Thomistic interpretation in which Marechal worked is perhaps dated. But his insistence on knowledge through identification and his brilliant analysis, in extract XL, of subjective and objective evidence are as relevant as the day he wrote them. His critical insight, that the human mind is a part of reality and that the modes of its operation are indicative of the structure of being, finds its fitting place at the heart of the thought of both Rahner and Lonergan. At one time, a translation of the full text of Marechal's major work, or at least of Cahier Five, would have been most welcome. But, since his ideas have entered the life-stream of contemporary thought, Donceel's volume admirably fits the need of the student for a means of grasping thB theses at their origin without becoming encumbered by the protracted analysis in which Marechal sets them forth. In a sense, Marechal's conclusions are greater than his premises. Donceel has retained enough of the original argument to make them intelligible without limiting their scope and significance. The translation is smooth and readable. At times the transition from one excerpt to another is abrupt, leaving the reader dangling from the 668 BOOK REVIEWS first conclusion on the far side of an unbridged gap. Excerpt XLI which condenses the final book of Cahier Five should have been expanded or omitted. Some English-language bibliography and an index would have enhanced the value of this excellent book. J. PATOUT BuRNS, S. J. Regis CoUege Willowdale, Ontario, Canada Twentieth Century Philosophy. By BERNARD DELFGAAUW. Albany, N.Y.: Magi Books, 1969. Pp. 172, $4.95. Definitive critique or estimation of a study which claims so much territory for itself on the basis of so brief a treatment would be foolhardy. Delfgaauw's points are quickly made and, as one would hope, all judgments are pre-modified when offered. This is a well-done translation, by N. D. Smith of the fourth Dutch edition of De Wijsbegeerte van de 20e Eeuw written by a professor of philosophy at Groningen whose historical and scientific studies are gaining attention here. So far, this interest has resulted in translations of his profiles of Marx and de Chardin, his research on the problem of evolution, and a single volume survey of ancient and medieval philosophy. Delfgaauw's specialty, then, is synthesis. Rather than bicker over what he does not cover, let us attempt to render the tone...