Evening star., 1927-05-17
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
/. G.. VI.
THE STORY OF PHILOSOPHY. VIII
Durant. Simon and Schuster.

| A hand of the best-seller dial has,
for many a month now, spun snappily
round 10 Durant's STORY of Philoso-
ply" stopping there stock still with
no apparent intention Of moving on.
A surprising thing, thls-dont you
/ think? Granted that the general
public is given to reading in meas
ure never before equaled, who. look
! ing around, would suspect 1t of freely
voting actual popularity to the ao'
! Stract theme OF philosophy
! And what Is philosophy. anyway!
Well. philosophy is just words, grand
concOurses of words spun out Of the
most tenuous and elusive ideas on the
meaning Of the universe, on the ma
| tltre OF the soul. and on such other
unlznowable things. This word busi-
ness confined to the most dIaphanouS
| of thinking was. 1t appears. the sole
preoccupation of certain heathen men
who, in flowing robes or none at all,
used to walk the ways OF ancient
| Greece. talking the long days and
night through, year without end, enl'
| broidering pure distractions with vo-
cables Of beautiful and hypnotiZing
sound And even since those old days
| there has persisted a thin line of SUR
vivors who. period by period, have
discoursed majestically or otherwise
upon a theme that Is quite irrelevant
| to the prime business of modern life
| that of getting on in the world. Such,
in the rough. is the average notion
respecting that to which WIN Durant
has devoted whole big book.
| Obviously there is more to this mat
ter than we, the conmonaltv. have
dreamed. Otherwise there would ne
such volume Of general welcome as
| that which continues to await it's ap-
| proach.
Let's get into 1t ourselves Upon
the very doorsill of this adventure
distinct stir of surprise takes hold OF
us. For out from the open door there
floats a warm and energizing current
of life, not the damp and musty odors
Of decay that the buried centuries had
! promised. Once inside the entrance,
living men come toward us, warm of
handclasp. beaming in welcome.
| Astonished. we are at once quite at
home. And this first effect continues
| throughout the story-~-the effect of
being in the midst of current things,
in the midst of interests momentouS
to modern life. Socrates, Plato. Aris-
| totle, our first hosts are not men
| a thousand years before our own
Christian era. Rather are they right
at hand, vivid and vital, in the endur-
| ing circumstances of human exist
| ence through which they so serenely
move. III the deep permanent signifi-
canoes OF human thought and feeling.
And this, / take it. is the real call
of The Story of Philosophy" For
without this mode of sympa thetic
and simple approach. without this
art of humanizing the past in its
service to the present, Durant's
| learning would have counted less
than 1t has counted here The power
| of exposition. so obvious in this case,
| of close analysis applied to the prin-
ciples of philosophy. with their clear
| synthesis into various schools and
| bodies of .philosophic thought---these
alone. or even with the science of his
| tory added, would have left this book.
| finally, in, the hands of students ard
others of the Intellectually elect.
But. happily, here -, besides. a poet
| in the quality of his imagination. a
| dramatist, too, III feeling and meth
| od. BY virtue OF these added gifts
| of poetic and dramatic insight he has
brought the dead to life. BY virtue
| Of these he has rolled the old cen
! turtles into this new one for it's bet
| ter illumination and understanding.
| In a word. he has created great
| STORY" o.d as civilization itself, new
as yesterday, wherein triumphant ac-
| ton sweeps forever forward. vital
| colorful. human with it's heroes on
| their unending quest of life In its
| essence and in it's bearing upon the
| affairs of man.
| From Socrates and Plato to John
| Dewey, the great story ruHs--from
! half a millennium before this era be-
gan to 1920. plus. Beyond Aristotle.
| coming our way, stand Bacon, Spi-
| noza, Voltaire, Locke, Rousseau and
| others and others up TO cotem-
| porary European and American
| philosophers. Each is set in his own
| day OF material circumstance and in
| tellectual trend. From such stand
| point each is examined for his con-
| tribution to the body of philosophic
| thought that moves steadily through
| the entire period. All of it, however
| is the story of the present reached
| up to out of a long past. Before set
| ting out. Durant defines philosophy.
| that is, he defines it sufficiently to
| let us know something about where
we are going under his guidance
| light" since there Is always some
wistful remnant in us of the early
| Wooing OF wisdom" We are driven
| to philosophy because we do want
| to seize the value and perspective of
! passing things, and SO to pull our
! selves up out of the maelstrom of
| daily circumstances. We want to
| know that the little things are little.
and the big things big. before it is
| too late. We want to learn to laugh
| in the face of the inevita BILE, to smile
| even at the looming of death" And
to those who decry the study of
philosophy as a futile exercise while
they exalt the study of science as
something worth while, science
seems always to advance while phil
osophy seems always to lose ground,
Yet this is only because philosophy
accepts the hard and hazardous task
of dealing with problems not yet
open TO the methods of science
problems like good and evil, beauty
and ugliness, life and death; so soon
as a field of inquiry yields knowl-
edge susceptible of exact formulation
it is called science. Every science
begins as philosophy and ends as art.
Philosophy seems to stand still. per-
picked; but only because she leaves
the fruits of victory to her daugh-
ters, the sciences, and herself passes
on, divinely discomfort 0ovelyD to
the uncertain and unexplored.
And through a long story OF CO.
temporaneous discovery the author
comes finally TO the American philos-
ophers, George Santayana, William
James, John Dewey. 1T becomes evi.
dent that our ancient dependence on
European thought Is lessening. that
we are beginning to do our own work
in philosophy, literature and science,
and in our own way. Merely beginning.
OF course, for we are still young. and
we have not yet learned to walk en-
tirelX without the assistance of our