Book Notes

Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS 311 this new thought such problems as those which Mora tackles may instruct us by being suffered rather than solved. JAcoB NEEDLEMAN San Francisco State College BOOK NOTES John Hackney, A History oJ Greek, and Roman Philosophy, New York: Philosophical Library, 1966. Pp. vii + 269. $6.00. "The author's aim throughout is to present thought as a concrete concomitant of history. This theme is traced from the simple beginnings of philosophy at Ionia, through the mighty systems of Plato and Aristotle to the neo-Platonism of Rome, which sought to weld these two philosophies into a single unified and valid whole" (from the introductory note on the Jacket). --H.W.S. Ren6 Descartes, Discourse on Method, Optics, Geometry, and Meteorology. Trans., with an Introduction, by Paul J. Olscamp. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1965. Pp. xxxvi + 361. = The Library of Liberal Arts, 211. Paper, $2.25. In the introduction, Professor Olscamp calls attention to the fact that Descartes intended the other three pieces in this volume to serve as examples of the method set forth in the Discourse. It is only just that Descartes' intentions should now be fulfilled in fairly clear, if occasionally awkward English versions. Seeing these pieces brought together in this way also sheds light on Descartes' philosophical opinions, frequently distorted by over-simplified distinctions like that between empiricist and rationalist. 01scamp succeeds in showing that Descartes is better thought of as a forerunner to modern-day hypothetico-deductive theories of scientific explanation. Perhaps it is what we should have realized all along in one so preoccupied with methodology. --A. R. LovcH Gottfried Wilhelm yon Leibniz, Monadology and Other Philosophical Essays. Trans. by Paul Schrecker and Anne Martin Schrecker. With an Introduction and Notes by Paul Schrecker. Indianapolis" The Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1965. Pp. xxx + 163. = The Library of Liberal Arts, 188. Paper, $1A5. This edition contains pieces also included in the Scribner Selections, but supplements that collection in two ways. The translations are better, and this edition contains selections from "On the Universal Science," "Critical Remarks Concerning the General Part of Descartes' J3 ~, ,, Principles, and On the Ultimate Origination of the Universe, which are not otherwise readily available. There is also an illuminating introduction by Paul Schrecker, drawing attention to the way in which Leibniz' work in mathematics provides a unity to his philosophy. It is only a pity that a few more of Leibniz's papers could not have been included in this rather slender volume. --A.R.L. Harry M. Bracken, The Early Reception o] Berkeley's lmmaterialism, 1710-1738. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1965. Pp. xiv + 130. = International Archives of the History of Ideas, 10. (A reissue of the 1958 edition with minor additions.) Guilders 18.90. "A large number of small changes have been made in the text and a substantial number of references added. These are primarily references to secondary sources since I have come upon little in the way of new material for the 1710-1733 period. This is in spite of the fact that during the summer of 1964 I examined a quantity of English tract literature of the early eighteenth century as well as many of the more philosophical books of that era. Accordingly, I believe that my account of the early reception of Berkeley's immaterialism and its influence on Berkeley's subsequent reputation as a philosopher remains sound. "I have, however, included in the present edition my paper, 'Berkeley's Realisms.' The text is substantially that which appeared in the Philosophical Quarterly in 1958 and is reprinted in Appendix A..." (from the Preface to the Revised Edition, p. xi.). --H.W.S. David Hume, O] the Standard o] Taste and Other Essays. Ed., with an Introduction, by John W. Lenz. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1965. Pp. xxviii + 183. - The Library of Liberal Arts, 84. Paper, $1.75. These essays show Hume at his literary best, but then, what of Hume doesn't? It is less clear that they can be interpreted in the light of what Professor Lenz regards as the three 312 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY major tenets of Hume's philosophy: that appeal to experience is necessary to decide questions of...