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Journal of Philosophy, Inc.

Leonard Nelson zum GedchtnisReview by: Walter EcksteinThe Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 52, No. 14 (Jul. 7, 1955), pp. 388-389Published by: Journal of Philosophy, Inc.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2021430.

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388 THE JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHYLeonard Nelson zunm Geddichtnis. Herausgegeben von Minna

Specht und Willi Eichler. Frankfurt a.M.-Gottingen: VerlagOeffentliches Leben [1953]. 306 pp. Cloth, DM 14.80;

Paper, DM 12.80.This is a memorial volume comprising thirteen contributions by

former students of Nelson, all in a rather unusual way still ded-icated to the memory of their teacher, a forceful and highly ide-alistic philosopher and educator, who died in 1927 at the age of45. All the essays, varying in length from 3 to 87 pages, are, withone exception,' devoted to some aspect of Nelson's philosophy.From a philosophic point of view the most interesting papers areJulius Kraft, Leonard Nelson und die Philosophie des XX. Jahr-hunderts, Grete Henry-Hermann, Die fiberwindung des Zufalls,Kritische Betrachtungen zu Leonard Nelson 's Begriindung derEthik als Wissenschaft, and Paul Bernays, iUber die Fries'scheAnnahme einer Wiederbeobachtung der unmittelbaren Erkenntnis.

Nelson had tried to revive the Critical Philosophy as developedand modified by Jakob Friedrich Fries. It was particularly thelatter 's theory that there is an immediate, though obscure,knowledge which Nelson took over and applied primarily to thefield of ethics. By doing this, he hoped to open up a new provinceto the reign of exact science. To him the difficulty did not seemto lie in the achievement of ethical knowledge, but rather in theproblem how to cast it into the form of science. He believedthat there is an a priori moral law and that we can find out itscontents by analysing our actual ethical judgments. He furtherwas convinced that that immediate rational, practical (i.e., ethical)knowledge makes it possible to determine the right way of acting,or, as he sometimes expressed it, to exclude chance from our actions.He believed that there is a scientifically purified moral insightpossible which would eventually result in a perfect ethicalcharacter.It is to the discussion of this aspect of Nelson's philosophy thatMrs. Henry's article, the longest and most thorough paper in thissymposium, is chiefly directed. Though she accepts many of Nel-son's premises, she still raises serious questions as to the validityof some of his conclusions. Thus, e.g., she tries to show that inorder to make a rational determination of our decisions possible(which alone would free our actions from the rule of chance) one

1 This exception is the rather remarkable article, Die Bedeutung psy-chischer Vorgiinge fur das biologische Gesamtgeschehen, by Otto Lowenstein,a neurologist, living in New York City. It is perhaps worth mentioning thatquite a number of the contributors had been forced to leave Germany underthe Hitler regime, some of them having found refuge in the United States.

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BOOK REVIEWS 389would have to presuppose the existence of an immediate or pureethical motive or interest, besides ethical principles which, inaccord with Nelson, Mrs. Henry is ready to postulate. She doubts,however, the existence of such a pure ethical interest, in thesense in which Nelson uses the term. (Interest, according to Nel-son, is characterized by its polarity and by being able to act as astimulus for action.) She is also sceptical with regard to Nelson'sconcept of the freedom of the will, though she shares his differen-tiation between causality and determination by reasons or values.Mrs. Henry's is undoubtedly the best exposition and critique ofNelson's ethical position so far published.

The other papers in this volume deal with the implications ofNelson 's work for legal philosophy, economics, and political theory,and with his educational ideas and methods. The book also con-tains a short biography by Minna Specht and an extensive bibliog-raphy. WALTER ECKSTEINNEW YORmCITYGrosse Menschen unserer Zeit; Portraits aus drei Kulturkreisen.

SIEGFRIEDMARlCK. Meisenheim am Glan: Westkulturverlag An-ton Hain, 1954. 226 pp.Professor Marek (Roosevelt College), who will retire in the fall,left Germany at the age of forty, spent several years in France,and came to this country in 1939. In the Great Men of our Timehe tries to appraise the philosophical, political, and literary trendsof the three cultures which have shaped his life and work. Thechoice of the great men rests with the subjective character of

the book. Personal experiences are the main criteria of the selec-tion (p. 7). Marek's lively and interesting portraits lack com-pleteness but are rich in qualities which are rare in exhaustive,encyclopedic cultural treatises. These are: a penetrating analysisof the discussed personalities, a fine grasp of their central ideas, andthe problem-centered attitude which keeps our interest alive in thehistorical continuity of Western thought.The book consists of three sections: Amerikaner Kulturkreis,Deutscher Kulturkreis, and Franz6sischer Kulturkreis. Thefirst part deals with F. D. Roosevelt, Dewey, and Niebuhr; thesecond part discusses K. Schumacher, K. Adenauer, Th. Mann,H. Hesse, F. Werfel, Jaspers, H6nigswald, Heidegger, and Cassirer;the third part studies L. Blum, Gide, Valery, Sartre, Marcel,Mounier, and Maritain. The biographical sketches of the variousthinkers and the exposition of their ideas vary greatly in length.Some cover as many as twenty, some only a few pages. Marek

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