• • • • ~evietOs ojf 1900ks * * * * Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article/68/2/407/56733 by guest on 27 September 2021 General THE CAREER OF PHILOSOPHY: FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE ENLIGHTENMENT. By John Herman Randall, Jr. (New York: Columbia University Press. 1962. Pp. xiv, 993· $13·95·) THE author of The Making of the Modern Mind (1926) and of Nature and Historical Experience (1958) here presents the fruit of a lifetime of teaching and scholarship centered on the history of reflective thought. In The Career of Philosophy Randall begins by grouping into a triad what he sees as the medieval roots of modern thought, namely, Augustinian Platonism, Thomistic Aristoteli­ anism, and the via moderna of William of Ockham. He then recounts the simul­ taneous coming of humanism, including the rediscovery of the classics of ancient philosophy and the rise of the Reformation, and science, including the contribu­ tions of the Paduan school, on which Randall has done pioneering research, and the rise of Copernicanism. The last two parts of the book take up the sequelae of these two arrivals, in reverse order: the progress of science, including the "great debate" over continental rationalism (Descartes and Spinoza) and British empiricism (Newton and Hobbes), and the progress of humanism, including the analyses of man proposed by Locke, Berkeley, and Hume, and by the French Encyclopedists. A second volume, covering the period since Kant, is promised. In true philosophical style, Randall introduces his subject-the history of mod­ ern thought-with short disquisitions on history, philosophy, and modern cul­ ture. History, he says, is "a continual readaptation of old materials, in the light of changing needs and problems." Philosophy "belongs to the oldest profession in the world: she exists to give men pleasure, and to satisfy their imperious needs." Modern culture, according to Randall, is a synthesis and development of themes that are rooted in scholasticism. This book is the first attempt in several decades to provide a continuous, com­ prehensive, documented, analytic, and critical narrative of the vicissitudes of modern thought. It takes full account of recent scholarship. While it is rich in detail and erudition, it does not bog down. It is lively, and even at times sprightly. Its insights are revealing and persuasive. A few more subheadings in this work of almost a thousand pages would be helpful. Dividing (as the author does) a long chapter into numbered sections is a right step, but the labeling of these numbered sections with a series of integrated captions would be an improvement. Washington, D. C. WILLIAM GERBER 40 7 .