The Unity of Philosophical Experience [Paperback]

Etienne Gilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1999

Etienne Gilson The best summary of this book is in the authors words from the forword: "It is the proper aim and scope of the present book to show that the history of philosophy makes philosophical sense, and to define its meaning in regard to the nature of philosophical knowledge itself. For that reason, the various doctrines, as well as the definite parts of these doctrines, which have been taken into account in this volume, should not be considered as arbitrarily selected fragments from some abridged description of the medieval and modern philosophy, but as a series of concrete philosophical experiments especially chosen for their dogmatic significance. Each of them represents a definite attempt to deal with philosophical knowledge according to a certain method, and all of them, taken together, make up a philosophical experience. The fact that all those experiments have yielded the same result will, as I hope, justify the common conclusion...that there is a centuries long experience of what philosophical knowledge is—and that such an experience exhibits a remarkable unity."

Product Details

• Paperback: 285 pages
• Publisher: Ignatius Press (October 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 089870748X
• ISBN-13: 978-0898707489
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #505,566 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Gem, June 13, 2000

By 

Steve Jackson "stevejackson100atyahoocom" (New England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Unity of Philosophical Experience (Paperback)

This book is part history of philosophy, part history of philosophizing, and -- and its own way -- part introduction to philosophy. In so doing, Etienne Gilson shows the "unity of philosophical experience" through a study of important philosophers.

Etienne Gilson was one of the greatest historians of philosophy in the 20th century. His brilliance shows throughout this work and so much could be quoted. For example: "As soon as Descartes published it, it became apparent that, like Caesar's wife, the existence of the world should be above suspicion . . . . Descartes had endeavored to prove something that could not be proved, not beacause it is not true, but on the contrary, beacause it is evident." (p. 146.)

If you are new to the study of philosophy, get this book for an introduction; if you are familiar with philosophy, this is a great "refresher course."

36 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A history of philosophy with philosophical implications, March 8, 2002

By 

Neri "Neri" (Himeji, Japan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Unity of Philosophical Experience (Paperback)

Lectures given by Etienne Gilson in 1936 at Harvard. Gilson defines the coming war, World War II, as a philosophical war of two different heads of Hegelianism. Communism, which is inspired by a look forward, into what will be, and helping it along (all conjecture of course); and the Hitlarian (Romantic) looking to the past. Thus Hitler's paganism and his desire to rid Europe of all nonindigionious elements, especially Semetic. Christianity, after all, is a conquering force upon the natural purity and indigoniousness of Europe. It is a glorification of what man, or more importantly, a nation (peoples) would be had they been left in their natural state uncorupted by foreign elements. A Darwinian, Rousousian, Kantian mix (among others) that created the ultranationalistic Romanticism. Gilson defines these misguided principles (still the dominant principles of today) as leading to a future tragic bloody war. But it also explains why Japan, in WWII, wished to be rid of Americanism in their culture, and of any foreign influences. Anyway it leads to extreme nationalism that is just an end result of Romanticism. The problems with defining the truth of Hitler to modern minds is we are not far removed from the thesis and antithesis of his metaphyiscal plain.

The most important thesis of the book, however, is Gilson's defense that philosophy and more importantly metaphysics is a process and not a conclusion. Once one has made metaphysics a conclusion it ceases to be Metaphysics. Metaphyics can supose a greater truth, like an octagon being closer to a circle than a hexagon, but to incompus all truth is at least a human impossibility. However there have been many cycles in the history were postulations of a "metaphysical" entirety of truth have lead to philosophical cycles of argumentation, sometimes with real physical consequences. These cycles have turned into philosophical battles between true metaphyics and the false. The most recent false metaphicans have been Hegel, Kant, Carte, Hume, Descartes, and William of Ockham, plus their various disciples. The first cycle, Gilson defines, is that of Thales, 2,600 years ago, claiming all is an absolute of everything being air, followed by Anaximenes claiming everything was not air but water, and then Heraclitus caliming all is fire, then the first synthasis of this absurdity was Anaxaimander saying that the common things of all this stuff was indeterminable.

Gilson spends most of his effort, 99% of it, in defining the modern and medieaval cycles of metaphysical certatude and the resulting problems. Any summary of it would not do it justice.

The importance of this book to historians and pilosophers and historians of philosophy is immense. I don't know of any other book which so vividly paints a picture of modern thinking and how "it" got here than this book. Although I must admit I got hopelessly lost in the discriptions of Descarte's postulations, but the thesis of Descartes was made clear. One could go on forever about this book it is a cornicopia of ideas for further study and expansion. Highly recommended for any student of history or philosophy. Gilson brings a view that cannot be ignored. The question I have for Gilson, if I could ask it, is does Gilson agree that error illuminates the truth, as Aquinas did, and further, if error is good.

Gilson convincingly argues that there is unity to the philosophical experience and this experience is illuminating on the nature of man and perhaps more.

30 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I almost missed him because he was a Catholic. Very Dumb!, March 5, 2000

By 

Gerald Spezio (San Luis Obispo, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Unity of Philosophical Experience (Paperback)

After almost missing brilliant Stanley Jaki, Benedictine priest, physicist, and consummate philosopher/historian of science because of his Catholicism; I smartened up. You wouldn't want to miss Einstein or Bertrand Russell either, would you? Okay, ditto for Jaki and Gilson. It was Stanley Jaki who sent me on to Gilson. I am a very fallen away Catholic with all the attendant hostilities, but I learned plenty from Gilson's The Unity of Philosophical Experience. Whatever your persuasions; if you respect intelligenge, methodical realism, and honesty, Jaki and Gilson are well worth your time.