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An Introduction to Philosophy (A Sheed & Ward Classic)

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I have been teaching intro to philosophy for five years, and Maritain's book is the best I have ever seen. In the first four chapters, Maritain lays out the development of philosophical thought from various schools of thought around the world in ancient time, through the pre-Socratics and through Aristotle. Then in the next four chapters he shows what philosophy is, how it is related to the special sciences, to theology, and to common sense. That is all part one of the book. In part two of the book, he examines and explains each of the main divisions of philosophy inluding: logic, philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of nature, epistemology, ontology (to which he devotes four chapters), and the philosopy of art (i.e. ethics).

The chapter on the relation between philosophy and the special sciences (i.e. physics, chemistry, biology, etc.) is by itself worth the price of the book. Maritain does an excellent job showing that philosophy (per se, not de facto) is a science, and that by its very nature, the science of philosophy should govern the special sciences. Maritain here provides the antidote to the 'scientism' that is so prevalent in academia. Here we learn why ontology is not at the mercy of the special sciences, and thus why we need not be reductionists, physicalists, or eliminativists. This was standard fare many years ago, but has largely been lost in the aftermath of positivism. Ironically, if I had to pick any one book that I think would be most helpful to the Western philosophical community, it would be Maritain's _An Introduction to Philosophy_. So many of the debates in contemporary philosophy are founded on errors that are pointed out in this intro book.

In November 2005 Sheed and Ward reprinted Jacques Maritain's An Introduction to Philosophy. This primer, which Maritain first published in 1931, is a bit different from standard introductions to philosophical thought such as Will Durant's Story of Philosophy, Bryan Magee's Story of Philosophy, or Frederick Coppleston's exhaustive multivolume History of Philosophy. Maritain's focus is to explicate a particular view of the endeavor of philosophy and to point out the cornerstones of his thought.

To start with, Maritain is a Thomist, following in the intellectual traditions of St. Thomas Aquinas, who in turn draws upon Aristotle. Maritain's approach in this book is to first trace this history of philosophy up to Aristotle. For this, he posits primitive traditions, discernable from both theology and a reasonable induction from historical evidence, which contain wisdom that is common to all mankind globally. He seeks remnants of these traditions in pre-Greek Indo-European civilizations: Persian, Indian, and Chinese. After surveying these, he proceeds to Greek thought: the pre-Socratics, the Sophists, Socrates, Plato, and finally Aristotle. Maritain sees the ancient Persian, Indian, Chinese, and pre-Socratic Greeks as derived from healthy primitive traditions (although in corrupted form). The work of philosophy, in part, is to recover the ancient wisdom and ground it in a system of reason and dialectic.

Upon stating in brief form what he sees as Aristotle's achievements are, Maritain changes his method. He does not follow, as most historical texts would, with a discussion of late antiquity and modern philosophers. For example, do not get a sketch of Descartes in historical context. Rather, Maritain discusses the structure of philosophy as a body of knowledge. That structure is itself determined by Thomist philosophy. Maritain discusses the boundaries of philosophy -- how it is distinct from the empirical sciences, for example, and how it relates to them. He contrasts the Thomist view on philosophy with alternatives in modernity. He then gives an account of the fields of philosophy:

I. Logic (a sort of preamble to philosophy proper)
II. Theoretical philosophy (speculative, related to understanding of the world)
---1. Philosophy of mathematics and nature
---2. Epistemology
---3. Ontology and metaphysics
---4. Natural theology
III. Practical philosophy (related to human action)
---1. Philosophy of art and technology
---2. Ethics

Walking through these fields (philosophical categories which themselves follow from his Thomism), Maritain points out both the Thomist and Aristotelian positions, and the modernist positions, which are usually contradictory extremes which the Aristotelian mean reconciles.

It's a very rigorous and systematic book with a good deal of common sense. It explains a lot of Thomism in a very detailed way and makes an excellent reference for those looking to understand this point of view. Thomism can be a bit dry. Maritain goes a long way to guiding the reader to see motivations and connections. For example, one can struggle Aristotle for years and not find as clear an explication of metaphysical terms such as essence (being inasmuch as it can be understood), substance (being inasmuch as it primarily is), and act and potentiality (being inasmuch as it is the subject of change and motion). For anyone interested in Thomism, this book is a find.

If one needs an introduction to the field of philosophy, they could no better than to start w/ Maritain's text. Concise, insightful, and clear, it summarizes the aspects of philosophical inquiry in less than 200 pages. As to the Catholic "slant" that a few might find troubling, one must recall the words of Evelyn Waugh when he noted the Catholic Church constituted, "a coherent philosophical system with intransigent historical claims." Here is the doorway into that system; enter a see...

Although concentrated on Western philosophy, this book will bring a good basic understanding of philosophy as a whole

This book is not an introduction to philosophy as such, but rather to the philosophy asserted by its French author, Jacques Maritain (1882-1973), who converted to Catholicism in 1906 when he was in his mid twenties. Originally interested in the philosophy of Benedict de Spinoza (1632-1677), then in the philosophy of Henri Bergson (1859-1941), the author became a devotee of St. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274) two years after his conversion to Catholicism, and eventually renounced his previous interest in Spinoza or Bergson.

It is no coincidence that Maritain advocates Thomism, the philosophy and theology of St. Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas is a doctor of the Catholic Church, specifically known as "The Angelic Doctor." The Catholic Encyclopedia states that doctors of the Church are "writers [who] have received this title on account of the great advantage the whole Church has derived from their doctrine." In fact Thomism was so valuable to the Catholic Church that in 1879, just three years before Maritain was born, Pope Leo XIII ordered that it be taught in all Catholic schools as official Church doctrine. This order was issued in an encyclical titled "Aeterni Patris" ("Eternal Fathers"), about which the Catholic Encyclopedia writes that "Its purpose was the revival of Scholastic philosophy, according to the mind of St. Thomas Aquinas."

The Catholic Church exercised editorial control over the content of this book. In 1917, as Maritain finished a year lecturing at the Petit Séminaire de Versailles, he was commissioned by the Church to write a series of philosophy textbooks for Catholic secondary schools, colleges and seminaries. One result was this book, which received an Imprimatur from the Church -- as must all Church textbooks. The word 'Imprimatur' is Latin for "let it be printed." An Imprimatur is granted by a Catholic bishop to indicate that the text has been thoroughly reviewed by a Church panel and deemed to contain nothing contrary to Catholic faith or morals.

Therefore the title of this book is misleading, because it has been translated into English without qualification as "An Introduction to Philosophy." In the context in which this book was originally published in France in 1920, as "Introduction générale à la philosophie," it was assumed that the reader was a Catholic student, and that he already knew the philosophy in question was Thomism and that it was official Church doctrine. Hence there was no need to add any qualifier to the original title in French. But for us in the English-speaking world 85+ years later -- and many of us will not be Catholic, and will have no interest in becoming such -- we cannot assume knowledge of the context and purpose of this book.

However, the problems with this book do not end with the title. The book's manner of exposition itself is offensive. In Chapter One, Egyptian and Semitic cultures are needlessly denigrated as "scornful of human wisdom and the achievements of pure reason." Buddhism is unnecessarily attacked as "cowardice" and "an intellectual plague to humanity." Hinduism is "counterfeit." Chinese culture and history is "diseased." Zoroastrianism is a "failure." It is only in ancient Greece, and ancient Greece alone, claims Maritain, that "the wisdom of man found the right path." The Greeks are "the chosen people of reason." Having read this, how can one expect Maritain to do justice to those with whom he disagrees?

This book lacks critical reflection about its subject matter. Maritain lauds Aristotle (384-322 BCE), claiming that "he founded for all time the true philosophy." Aristotle "saved whatever was true and valuable, not only in Plato, but in all the ancient thinkers of Greece." But to my knowledge Maritain says nothing of Aristotle's claim that the Earth is the center of the universe, or that rocks have an innate desire to move to the center of the Earth. And nowhere does he appear to discuss the limitations of Aristotelian syllogistic as a vehicle for mathematical reasoning. How can a syllogism demonstrate that 1 + 1 = 2? These are serious, long-recognized problems for Aristotle. Maritain discusses none of them, to my knowledge.

This book ignores significant facts about its subject. What about those ancient Greek philosophers whom Maritain does not cover? The Hellenistic philosophers? The Stoics, Epicureans, Cynics, and Skeptics? The Megarians, who developed a propositional logic long before George Boole did in the 19th Century? Maritain remarks tersely that they "in essentials would deform philosophy." This is needless insult for legitimate, Socratically inspired philosophical traditions which have much to offer. How can we trust someone like this to speak with authority about philosophy as a whole?

This book misrepresents its subject. For Aristotle, theology is not a separate discipline from philosophy. But we are never told this in this book. For Maritain, contrary to Aristotle, philosophy is subservient to what Maritain calls "supernatural theology." Maritain had converted to Catholicism, had embraced the official philosophy and theology of the Church, was on faculty at a Catholic university, and intended this book for Catholic students. It received an Imprimatur from the Church. He obviously is not talking about Hindu, Jewish, Islamic, Protestant, or even Orthodox supernatural theology. In other words, for Maritain the Catholic Church ought to have absolute veto authority over all philosophy, as the Church did in fact have veto authority over the content of Maritain's book. This is an extremely controversial claim with which probably the majority of philosophers disagree -- including Aristotle himself. Ignoring these facts, Maritain asserts without argument that philosophy must reject "as false any philosophic affirmation which contradicts a [supernatural] theological truth" -- i.e. alleged truth, as to assume it's true is to beg the question.

Maritain calls such alleged truth "science" -- a use of the word completely alien to modern ears and again seriously misleading. Maritain means "science" in the medieval Scholastic sense of the Latin word "scientia" and the Greek word "episteme," i.e. a system of allegedly self-evident axioms plus the theorems derived from them by means of Aristotle's syllogistic. He does not mean "science" in the sense of empirical conjecture, falsifiability, and probabilistic reasoning which we in the 21st Century call genuine science. "Certain knowledge of causes is termed science," writes Maritain, contradicting hundreds of years of experimental scientific practice which has provided us with probabilistic, but not certain, truths about the universe that were unimaginable to Aristotle or Aquinas. Indeed, this conflict between "science" as understood by the Church, and science as practiced by scientists, led the Church to burn Giordano Bruno at the stake in 1600 for heresy, to condemn Copernicus posthumously in 1616 for heresy and ban his writings, and to imprison Galileo for life in 1633, as well as condemn him for heresy and ban his work.

Perhaps we can excuse this book's hostility to other traditions, and its lack of critical reflection about its own tradition, by attributing it to the prevailing prejudice of French Catholicism 85+ years ago. But it is not 1920. And this book has been translated into English and republished for a wider audience, among whom will be many who are actively offended or misled by the content of this book.

In summary, this book is misleading and offensive. It ignores certain significant and relevant facts, while misrepresenting others. It needlessly insults other cultures and religions. It does not even attempt to give an unbiased account of philosophy. Nor does it appear aware of the limitations of its own prejudice. I find it useful primarily as an antiquated Catholic account of the history of philosophy. If you want to get an idea of St. Thomas Aquinas's philosophy, without Aquinas's logical rigor, then this book might be useful, but only if you can put up with the author's unwarranted prejudice, his explicit hostility to other traditions, and his lack of critical reflection about his own tradition. Maritain is no Aquinas, and this book is no state-of-the-art introduction to philosophy or its history. It is an 86-year-old French Catholic textbook, written under contract with the Church in the wake of a 19th Century Papal encyclical, exclusively advocating a 13th Century worldview which contradicts modern science. Caveat lector!