History Of Ancient Philosophy Research Articles

Comparative analysis of V. I. Vernadsky's concept of the noosphere in the light of the general dialectics of the development and history of ancient philosophy

Comparative analysis of V. I. Vernadsky's concept of the noosphere in the light of the general dialectics of the development and history of ancient philosophy

Научный реализм в истории античной философии

The article is devoted to the consideration of the possibility of applying the methodological principles of scientific realism in the history of ancient philosophy. The author shows that in its strong version, scientific realism is not an appropriate basis for historical research, since it involves minimizing the number of interpretations of philosophical material of the past. Another serious drawback of applying strong versions of scientific realism in the history of philosophy is their focus on the correspondent theory of truth. This theory does not fit the historian of philosophy, since she aims not only at creating a realistic picture of the past, but also at incorporating the philosophical ideas of the past into the modern context, therefore a coherent theory of truth is more likely to meet her objectives. After a brief review of the weak versions of realism (H. Putnam’s “internal realism”, S. Blackburn’s “quasi-realism” and “sensibility theory”), the author concludes that these kinds of realism are more suitable for the history of philosophy in general and for the history of ancient philosophy in particular. As a result, the author concludes that the historian of philosophy must take into account the objectivity and independence of the philosophical ideas of the past, and inevitably be guided by his own conceptual and terminological facilities in order to incorporate the ideas of the past into the modern philosophical context.

Typology of negativity in the history of ancient philosophy: the analysis of the concepts of Democritus, Plotinus and Damascus

Typology of negativity in the history of ancient philosophy: the analysis of the concepts of Democritus, Plotinus and Damascus

Integrating African Philosophy into the Western Philosophy Curriculum

In the last three years, there has been a worldwide increase in integrating African philosophy into the philosophy curricula. Nevertheless, given that African philosophy has been largely neglected by Western academia, many philosophers in the West who do wish to integrate it are unaware of how to do it. This article aims at addressing this issue by offering some recommendations on how to integrate African philosophy into the curricula. Particularly, it offers recommendations based on how the history of ancient philosophy, metaphilosophy, ethics and political philosophy have become integrated. Additionally, there is a recommendation for how to make an entirely new module based on African political philosophy.

SAVREMENE INTERPRETACIJE ‘SOKRATOVSKOG PROBLEMA’

<p>'Problem Sokrata' predstavlja jedno od važnijih pitanja u povijesti antičke filozofije. Riječ je o vjerodostojnosti i utemeljenosti izvorâ koji otkrivaju 'lice' povijesnog Sokrata. Naime, tokom proteklih godina istraživači su se sporili oko toga, kojem od četiri izvora (Aristofan, Platon, Ksenofon i Aristotel) pripada najveći stepen izvjesnosti za rekonstrukciju povijesnog lika filozofa iz Atene. Autor će promotriti ovo pitanje na temelju recentnih istraživanja i pokazati kako se Platonovi dijalozi i Ksenofonovi spisi nadaju kao najpouzdaniji pisani tragovi za definiranje filozofskog portreta Platonovog učitelja.</p>

A Feminist Philosopher on the Fringe of History: Ksenija Atanasijevic and Ancient Greek Philosophy

Ksenija Atanasijevic’s usually neglected philosophical work and her feminist rereadings of ancient Greek philosophy is examined. I argue that four short Atanasijevic essays written from 1923 to 1927 represent the forerunners of later feminist critique of and interventions into the philosophical canon. I further provide a critical analysis of Atanasijevic’s work during this period, acknowledging the fact that these essays show a more or less fragmented and unsystematic effort by Atanasijevic as an expert in ancient Greek philosophy. Necessary attention is paid to her need to write for a feminist and not only academic audience, so that her feminist engagements with the history of ancient philosophy can be seen as unprecedented in the region. Finally, I provide a comparative analysis of Atanasijevic’s essays devoted to ancient Greek women philosophers, published in 1924 and 1927, and a similar effort by Kathleen Wider, published in 1986, to show similar theses and conclusions developed by these two authors working in different times with different available resources.

O nacjonalizmie w filozofii

The article is a translation into Polish Semyon L. Frank’s review of Vladimir F. Ern’s famous work entitled A few words about Logos, the Russian philosophy and scientific spirit. Because of the new philosophical journal „Logos”. The author of this review regards Ern’s article as a eulogy of Russian philosophical thought. Ern rejects the whole “modern Western philosophical awareness.” It is – as he claims – imbued with the principle of ratio, hostile to the idea of Logos, expressed in Russian philosophy and the Orthodox Church. First and foremost, Frank accuses Ern of a vague outline of the concept of ratio. According to the author of the review, the principle of ratio is a fundamental feature of the concept of philosophy as such, and the history of ancient philosophy is the history of the origin of rational science. He stresses that Ern blurs the difference that exists between philosophy and religion and Ern’s hidden thought is the belief that religion better replaces philosophy. According to him, Ern is a conceited and blind nationalist who lacks a proper perspective on the assessment of his native philosophy and, at the same time, he impertinently tramples on the eternal values of European thought. Ultimately Frank supports the development of philosophical culture in Russia not writing off the meaning of the relations of thought with Western heritage.

Quel savoir après le scepticisme? Plotin et ses prédécesseurs sur la connaissance de soi (review)

Reviewed by: Quel savoir après le scepticisme? Plotin et ses prédécesseurs sur la connaissance de soi Lloyd P. Gerson Wilfried Kühn. Quel savoir après le scepticisme? Plotin et ses prédécesseurs sur la connaissance de soi. Histoire des doctrines de l’antiquité classique 37. Paris: J. Vrin, 2009. Pp. 471. Paper, €50.00. In this closely argued monograph, the author examines one chapter of Plotinus’s treatise V.3 [49], titled “On the Knowing Hypostasis and That Which is Beyond.” In the fifth chapter of that work, Plotinus makes the case for asserting that knowledge is primarily or essentially self-knowledge. This is certainly not a novel claim in the history of ancient philosophy, as Kühn amply demonstrates. It is a central claim in Aristotle’s epistemology and the later Peripatetic tradition. What is of particular interest for the Plotinian account of knowledge as self-knowledge is that it is made in response to a skeptical argument found in Sextus Empiricus, although it is likely that it did not originate with him. That argument attempts to pose the following dilemma for any “dogmatist” who embraces self-knowledge. Either this self-knowledge is in effect one “part” of the knower knowing another “part,” or else it is one “part” knowing not another “part,” but rather knowing “itself.” The first horn of the dilemma means that self-knowledge is not knowledge at all, since the putative knower would have to be able to show that the first “part” is representing the second part accurately. And this is something that cannot be done without the first “part” knowing the second “part,” not by representing it, but by being identical with it. This leads to the second horn: if the knowing “part” just knows itself and not an object different from itself, then this knowledge will have no content. So, self-knowledge seems to be impossible. All this the author explains with great care, though he does not emphasize a point that seems to me important, namely, that Sextus, like Plotinus and like Aristotle, is assuming that knowledge, as propounded by all dogmatists, is primarily taken to be self-knowledge, in which case the skeptical attack [End Page 522] on the latter becomes all the more serious and justifies Plotinus’s extensive response to it. The reason for this is that apparently only self-knowledge could be infallible, and it is infallibility that characterizes knowledge apart from mere belief. The main part of this book (45–311) is devoted to the structure of the argument in V.3, 5. Along the way, Kühn keeps in focus the historical discussions about knowledge that were the immediate background for Plotinus’s reflections. The last part of the book (313–416) provides a substantial exegesis and interpretation of Aristotle’s account of divine and human self-knowledge, of Alexander of Aphrodisias’s commentary on this account, and on Academic and Stoic epistemological contributions. Kühn argues, against many scholars, that Plotinus’s doctrine of self-knowledge is innovative in claiming that it is an activity and not a relation between a subject and an object. Against the obvious objection that Aristotle, too, conceives of the self-knowledge of the divine as an activity, the author argues that Plotinus relies on Plato’s Sophist in maintaining that the activity of the self-knowing Intellect is in fact that of the intelligible object, that is, the Form. Thus, Kühn is led to find in Plotinus an equivocation in the use of the Greek term for “knowledge,” that is, when applied to the subject for which knowing implies an intentional object, and for the object, for which knowing is a purely immanent activity without such an object. The great strength of this book is its minute attention to every nuance of Plotinus’s text and its aim—largely met—to provide a perspicuous and accurate presentation of the argument. All the relevant scholarship is treated in the footnotes, and all the relevant texts from elsewhere in the Enneads are discussed in their context. The principal weakness of the book is found in the author’s choice to set aside all metaphysical...

Peter of John Olivi On the Acts of the Apostles ed. by David Flood, O.F.M.

154 BOOK REVIEWS The Science ofConjecture is a masterly work, beautifully written, and based on encyclopaedic research, all references to which have been carefully annotated. It is simply a tour de force that is unlikely to be surpassed for many a year. BARRY MILLER University OfNew England Armidale, New South Wales, Australia Peter ofJohn Olivi On the Acts ofthe Apostles. Edited by DAVID FLOOD, O.F.M. St. Bonaventure, N.Y.: Franciscan Institute Publications, 2001. Pp. xxvi + 516 +ii. $50.00 (paper). ISBN 1-57659-174-3. In this the most recent volume of the editorial work of David Flood, O.F.M., we have an excellent critical edition of the commentary by Peter John Olivi on the Acts of the Apostles. Produced, as Flood observes (viii), somewhere in southern France and, in all probability, towards the end of Olivi's life (1248-98), the Lectura super Actus Apostolorum is the record of lectures delivered to younger friars. Although it draws heavily upon the traditional medieval sources for an Acts commentary, such as the Expositio Actuum Apostolorum and the Retractatio in ActusApostolorum ofvenerable Bede and Rabanus Maurus's Super Actus Apostolorum, the Lectura evinces its Franciscan origin in, among other points, the explanations of the paupertas humilis of the early apostolic community. This poverty, as Olivi is anxious to point out, excluded not simply individual claims to ownership, but even ownership on the part of the community (88-92) The work is divided into two major sections: the first part comprises t~e proemium and the commentary on chapter 1 ofActs; the second is composed of four subsections, each one of which is named according to one of the seasons of the year and treats its share of the remaining 27 chapters as part of the light metaphor that Olivi draws from the Canticle of Canticles (6:10): "Who is that woman going forth like the rising ofthe dawn, beautiful as the moon, choice like the sun, and terrible to behold, like an army arrayed for battle?" But, in spite of his typically medieval interest in numerology, Olivi also shows considerable sensitivity to historical detail and accuracy, even taking the effort to study the texts of the Jewish historian Josephus found in Bede and elsewhere. A noteworthy passage in this substantial commentary is the one bearing upon chapter 17 of Acts, wherein St. Paul attempts to convince the Athenian philosophers that they should accept his teaching about Christ crucified and raised from the dead. Here Olivi, speaking to a group ofyounger and less urbane friars who may not have done much reading in philosophical texts, recounts a brief history of ancient philosophy, using as his primary source Augustine's De BOOK REVIEWS 155 civitate Dei, while, interestingly enough, not drawing upon the richest source at his disposal for presenting the history of earlier classical philosophy, Aristotle's Metaphysica. Perhaps Olivi's intention was to keep the overview of the subject as clear as possible for the simple and humble friars (simplices [336]) to whom he was then lecturing. The edition is based upon the five known manuscripts along with quoted excerpts taken from the sermons of Bernardino of Siena. As Flood shows in his introduction, four of the five manuscripts fall into two groups that present texts of good quality. When the two groups are not in agreement, the reading of the majority of the witnesses is usually sound; in the cases when there are no majority readings, Flood maintains that the reading of the Naples manuscript (Bibliotheca Nazionale, cod. vii AA 45) is usually the best available choice because of its tendency to preserve typically Olivian expressions. Overall, the quality of the text is superb, the punctuation helpful, and the sources clearly documented, evidencing the remarkable scholarship ofthe editor, who has spent years reading and studying the writings of the Occitan master. In addition to the introduction and the text, the volume containsannotationes et auctoritates or the apparatus fontium, an index of manuscripts cited, an English summary of the commentary, an extremely handy listing of doubts and quaestiones raised by Olivi in the midst of his fundamentally literal commentary, an index of unusual Latin words found in the text...

Book Reviews

Books reviewed:Lester L. Grabbe (ed), Can a History of Israel be Written?Michael Prior (ed), Western Scholarship and the History of PalestineCyrus H. Gordon and Gary A. Rendsburg, The Bible and the Ancient Near EastTilde Binger, Asherah: Goddesses in Ugarit, Israel and the Old TestamentBen Witherington The Paul Quest: The Renewed Search for the Jew of TarsusRobert Valantasis, The Gospel of Thomas (New Testament Readings)Moshe Halbertal, People of the Book: Canon, Meaning and AuthorityWilliam J. Abraham, Canon and Criterion in Christian Theology: From the Fathers to FeminismRoger Haight, Jesus: Symbol of GodRaymund Schwager, translated by James G. Williams and Paul Haddon, Jesus in the Drama of Salvation: Towards a Biblical Doctrine of RedemptionRaymund Schwager, translated by James G. Williams, Jesus of Nazareth: How He Understood His LifeA. E. McGrath, Historical Theology. An Introduction to the History of Christian ThoughtC. Markschies, Between Two Worlds: Structures of Earliest ChristianityKhaled Anatolios, Athanasius: The Coherence of his ThoughtLeonard P. Hindsley, The Mystics of Engelthal: Writings from a Medieval MonasteryKent Emery, Jr., and Joseph Wawrykow (eds), Christ among the Medieval Dominicans: Representations of Christ in the Texts and Images of the Order of PreachersFrederick Christian Bauerschmidt, Julian of Norwich and the Mystical Body Politic of Christ (Studies in Spirituality and Theology 5)Pat Collins, Spirituality for the 21st Century: Christian Living in a Secular AgeTimothy O'Connell, Making DisciplesGordon Lathrop, Holy People: A Liturgical EcclesiologyStratford Caldecott (ed), Beyond the Prosaic: Renewing the Liturgical MovementMichael Hurley, Christian Unity: An Ecumenical Second Spring?John M. Riddle, Eve's Herbs: A History of Contraception and Abortion in the WestJ. Davies, Death, Burial and Rebirth in the Religions of AntiquitySimon Price, Religions of the Ancient GreeksKarsten Friis Johansen, A History of Ancient Philosophy from the Beginnings to AugustineA. A. Long (ed), The Cambridge Companion to Early Greek PhilosophyC. C. W. Taylor, The Atomists: Leucippus and Democritus: FragmentsGail Fine (ed), Oxford Readings in Philosophy: Plato. Vol. 1: Metaphysics and Epistemology, Vol. 2: Ethics, Politics, Religion and the SoulNoburu Notomi, The Unity of Plato's ‘Sophist’: Between the ‘Sophist’ and the ‘Philosopher’Helen S. Lang, The Order of Nature in Aristotle's The Order of Nature in Aristotle's ‘Physics’M. S. Kempshall, The Common Good in Late Medieval Political ThoughtGiordano Bruno. Edited and translated by Richard J. Blackwell and Robert de Lucca, Cause, Principle and Unity – And Essays on Magic

A history of ancient philosophy: from the beginnings to Augustine

A history of ancient philosophy: from the beginnings to Augustine

A History of Ancient Philosophy: From the Beginnings to Augustine

A History of Ancient Philosophy: From the Beginnings to Augustine

Greek philosophers of the Hellenistic age

This volume treats a fascinating but much neglected period in the history of ancient philosophy between the third and first centuries BC. Philosophers of the Hellenistic Age is based on primary sources: the Greek and Latin writings of the philosophers and the fragments, paraphrases, and testimonies from their lost works. The eight chapters discuss: Epicurus; Zeno, the founder of the Stoic school and his successor, Cleanthes; Pyrrho, the founder of Skepticism and Arcesilaus, the philosopher who introduced it to the Platonic Academy; Chrysippus, the third head of the Stoic school and its most important representative; Carneades and Philo of Larissa, second and third representatives of Skepticism in the Platonic Academy, respectively; Panaetius, the first leader of Middle Stoicism; Posidonius, the second leader of Middle Stoicism; and Antiochus of Ascalon, the head of the Academy who led it back from Skepticism and prepared Middle Platonism, which paved the way for Neoplatonism.

A history of ancient philosophy: v.2: Plato and Aristotle

A history of ancient philosophy: v.2: Plato and Aristotle

Vladimir Solov'ev on the Fate and Purpose of Philosophy

lecture of V. S. Solov'ev (1853-1900) on The Historical Tasks of Philosophy [Istoricheskie dela filosofii] was given by the young privat-docent on November 20, 1880 at St. Petersburg University; the text of the lecture was published in the periodical Russkaia mysl' (1881, no. 2) soon thereafter. lecture prepared the way for two parallel courses: a course in metaphysics at the university and a course in the history of ancient philosophy in the Advanced Women's Courses of K. N. Bestuzhev-Riumin.1 It is clear from the text of the lecture how important a role Solov'ev's simultaneous and mutually related pursuits in metaphysics, the history of philosophy, comparative mythology, and the history of religion played in his early works.2

An Introduction to Early Greek Philosophy: The Chief Fragments and Ancient Testimony, with Connecting Commentary (review)

Book Reviews An Introduction to Early Greek Philosophy: The Chief Fragments and Ancient Testimony, with Connecting Commentary. By John Mansley Robinson. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1968. Pp. x+342. $4.25. Paper.) This is a book that fills a long-standing need and does it well. In the past, the teacher of a survey course in the history of ancient philosophy who wished to cover the pre-Socratics more fully than is done in one of the several anthologies of Greek philosophy had awkward options. The most up-to-date and authoritative of the textbooks , G. S. Kirk and J. E. Raven's The Presocratic Philosophers, is too forbidding for a course at the sophomore-junior level. John Burnet's classic, Early Greek Philosophy , still unsurpassed in the quality of translation, puts one-sided emphasis on the scientific character of early Greek philosophy. Besides, neither Kirk-Raven nor Burner cover the Sophists (Burnet not even Democritus). Kathleen Freeman's Ancilla to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers (a translation of the B sections in Diels-Kranz, Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker) has the virtue that it gives the student a forceful and graphic impression of the scantiness of actual fragments; but the student is likely to feel more bewildered than challenged. As for the anthologies devoted specifically to the preSocratic .s, Milton C. Nahm's Selections from Early Greek Philosophy is badly dated, and PhiLip Wheelwright's The Presocratics takes excessive liberties with translation. Robinson's book now affords an excellent choice. The selection of primary source materials for the whole sequence from Ionians to Sophists is adequate to generous. Beyond this, Robinson has included about fifty passages--from Homer, Hesiod, Pindar, the historians, the tragic poets, Aristophanes, and the Hippocratic writings--that are interesting for their philosophic content or as suggestive paraI1eis. Robinson's translations of the fragments are, on the whole, precise and sensitive (I mention below some lapses that I have noticed). His introductory and connecting comments are lucid, wellinformed , and discreeL The book starts with a twenty-page chapter on Hesiod in which equal attention is given to the Theogony and to Works and Days. Robinson does not let go of the moral-anthropological strain when he turns to the early philosophers. In the case of the atomists he devotes hill chapters to "Macrocosm" and "Microcosm," respectively. He concludes with fifty pages, under the section heading '~I'he Unseating of Zeus," on the three-sided confrontation of Sophistic, traditional, and Socratic values in the late fifth century. The choice of texts and the explanations offered in this section bring out forcefully the truth of Robinson's epitomizing observation: "Plato saw further. He saw that in an important sense the teaching of the sophists was merely an expression of conventional morality itself.... In the teaching of the sophist the prudential morality of Hesiod has come home to roost" (p. 275). Cosmology and epistemology are, of course, the major themes of the book; but the chapters on Hesiod, Democritean ethics, and the Sophists could also be read profitably in courses in Greek ethics, classical civilization, or as background in a course on Plato. The usefulness of the book as a textbook is enhanced by a substantial yet wisely selective, "Bibliographical Essay," a "Note on the Sources," an index, maps, and [459] 460 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY illustrative figures and diagrams. The editing and design are very good. All ancient texts are printed as prose extracts, and the fragments are given additional prominence by being printed in boldface. References have been assembled at the end of the book, but Robinson has consistently shown good judgment in mentioning the source in his text in cases where this information would be specially relevant. An aid the book unfortunately does not have (it would be wise to supply this in future editions) is a concordance of Robinson's numbering of the fragments against the more familiar numbering of Diels-Kranz. The teacher (or the student who finds a reference in another book) must now thumb through the book or check through a whole reference section to spot a fragment or testimonium he knows by its B or A number in DielsKranz . I have two more critical...

A History of Greek Philosophy. Volume I: The Earlier Presocratics and The Pythagoreans (review)

Book Reviews A History of Greek Philosophy. Volume I: The Earlier Presocratics and The Pythagoreans . By W. K. C. Guthrie. (New York: Cambridge University Press, ----. Pp. xv + 538. $10.00). Professor Guthrie, Master of Downing College and Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy at Cambridge, has surprised no one by the excellence of this admirable first in his projected series of five volumes devoted to a study of ancient Greek philosophy. There has been no such ambitiously comprehensive work available in English since the translation (by L. Magnus and G. G. Berry) of Theodor Gomperz' four-volume work: Greek Thinkers: ,4 History of Ancient Philosophy appeared between 1901-1912. And in terms of the pleasures of reading as well as of learning, this first volume of Professor Guthrie's study promises a completed work on ancient Greck thought which will be most likely preferred not only by the scholar and specialist for whom it is primarily intended, but generally by students of classics and philosophy as well. For the clarity and crispness of style, the modest but searching care in presentation and the drawing on the latest researches and evidence, all of which have informed Professor Guthrie's earlier writings, are well represented in this volume, in which there is a full-scale treatment of the earlier Presocratics: the Milesians, Pythagoras, Alcmaeon, Xenophanes, and Heraclitus. A second volume will complete this most promising study of the Presocratics, allowing the remaining three volumes of the series to the later development of Greek philosophy. A prefatory comment (pp. ix-x) makes evident Professor Guthrie's own estimate of what is needed to make such a work of genuine value: I am weU aware of the magnitude of the task.... Far from being a pioneer study, this history deals with a subject of which almost every detail has been minutely worked over many times. What is needed . . . is a comprehensive and systematic account which will so far as possible do justice to the opposing views of reputable scholars, mediate between them, and give the most reasonable conclusions in a clear and readable form. The qualities called for are . . . clearheadedness , sober sense, good judgment and perseverence. While the author explicitly states that the qualities of originality and brilliance are os somewhat lesser value for the task than those mentioned above, the reviewer finds at least the former, originality, understood as a sympathetic reading of materials leading to an insightful and penetrating appreciation of the cultural documents, amply represented . As for brilliance, that more elusive quality, whose presence is infinitely more difficult to measure, it is perhaps less important or significant to render judgment on this score now than in future. Again Guthrie (p. ix-x): Yet to throw light on the Greek mind calls in addition for gifts of imagination, sympathy and insight .... entering into the thoughts of men moulded by a civilization distant in time and place . . . who wrote and spoke in a different language. For some of them, though we may call them philosophers, not only reason but also poetry, myth and divine revelation were paths to truth. Their interpreter must be a scholar with an ear for the subtleties and overtones of the Greek language, capable of comparing a philosopher's use of it with that of the writers of nonphilosophical poetry and prose. Where modern techniques of philosophical criticism will aid elucidation, he should ideally be equipped to invoke them also, while remaining immune from any tendency to anachronism. [85] 86 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY Assuredly a laudable statement of a goal, more often observed in the breech by recent commentators on historical documents in philosophy, albeit a goal which Professor Guthrie does not pretend to have achieved. He has, however, shown in this volume both a devotion to that ideal and how conscientiously he has tried to fall less short of that ideal than a good many others. In sum, it is well enough known that our information about the Presocratic philosophers is made up of brief extracts or quotation from their own works, mention, and discussion of Presocratic thought in the Platonic Dialogues and in the Aristotelian treatises ; finally, there is a good deal of information found in the Hellenistic...

Metaphysics in Process. A Selected History of Ancient Philosophy as an Introduction to the Philosophy of Being

Metaphysics in Process. A Selected History of Ancient Philosophy as an Introduction to the Philosophy of Being

Book Review: A History of Ancient Philosophy

Book Review: A History of Ancient Philosophy

Sociology in Roumania

iN NVESTIGATION of the development of sociology in Roumania 4 indicates two characteristics: that social science there has grown, in > Xits research and influence on certain aspects of the national life, to the point nowhere else attained in the countries of southeastern Europe; and secondly, in spite of its advancement we know very little of its contributions, because for some reason or other, it is extremely difficult to secure (in the true Roumanian fashion) concrete information on its various phases even by a personal visit, not to speak of correspondence. best known Roumanian sociologist is Dr. Demetrius Gusti (born i88o), graduate of the Universities of Paris, Berlin, and Leipzig (doctorate I904). In i9io he was appointed Professor of Ethics and History of Ancient Philosophy (to which was also added the chair of Sociology) in the faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the University of Iaai. In i9i8 he was elected Dean of this Faculty and re-elected in I920. But on the first of November of that year he was transferred to the faculty of Letters and Philosophy in the University of Bucharest to fill the chair of Sociology, Ethics, Politics, and Esthetics. His influence on public life began in i9i8, when he founded The Association of Science and Social Reform, which became Roumanian Social Institute in i92i, and of which he is president. In I922 he became director of Adult Education Foundation, founded by Prince (today King) Carol of Roumania. In i929 he was appointed President of the Administrative Council, President of the Administration of State Monopolies, President of the Administration of the Society for Radio-diffusion, and President of the Superior Council of Co-operatives. In I932, I933, and I934, he was a member of the Government as Minister of Public Instruction and a Senator. Since I934 he has been director of the Royal Carol Foundation.' In I935 Gusti completed twenty-five years of his sociological work. These years are also the years of sociological teaching and investigation in Roumania. Roumanian Social Institute published for that occasion a special issue of its yearbook in honor of its founder and president, which contains contributions of several well-known European sociologists, and of several American scholars.2 Herein we find several good summaries of Gusti's main