Abstract
THESE two books are expositions of the naturalistic philosophy now popular in the United States and mainly derived from the teaching of John Dewey. The starting point is the view that scientific methods of investigation are valid for all spheres of thought and action. These Naturalists, however, do not use the arbitrary restrictive criteria of truth and verifiability of the Logical Positivists, and therefore their theory does not run counter to actual scientific practice as Positivism does. So far as the argument in Lepley's book is designed to show that judgments of value can be accommodated within the scientific scheme just as easily as judgments of fact and that they do constantly occur, it is evidently sound. Those essays in Krikorian's book which are straightforward inquiries into specific subjects are well done. Thus, Eliseo Vivas on "A Natural History of the Aesthetic Transaction", George Boas on "The History of Philosophy", Edward W. Strong on "The Materials of Historical Knowledge", the editor on "A Naturalistic View of Mind" and, especially, Ernest Nagel on "Logic Without Ontology" make valuable contributions to their subjects—so far as they go. These essays display the best aspect of Dewey's teaching; they are careful, fair-minded, un-dogmatic.
(1) Verifiability of Value
By Ray Lepley. (Columbia Studies in Philosophy, No. 7.) Pp. xi + 267. (New York: Columbia University Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1944.) 22s. net.
(2) Naturalism and the Human Spirit
Edited by Yervant H. Krikorian. (Columbia Studies in Philosophy, No. 8.) Pp. x + 397. (New York: Columbia University Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1944.) 30s. net.
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RITCHIE, A. (1) Verifiability of Value (2) Naturalism and the Human Spirit. Nature 155, 592 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/155592a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/155592a0