s p i r i t u a l or other-affirming principle, moral
goodness is seen to mean the affirmation and
endorsement of the proper order of being, while
moral evil overturns that order in allowing the
natural principle to attain to independence.
When Schelling contends that human freedom
is the power to decide for good and for evil, he
returns to his theme of the intertwining of necessity
and freedom. Freedom never means arbitrary
choice or caprice for him. He will claim, indeed, that
"man is his own deed," but only in the sense that the
one and definitive exercise of his freedom lies
outside of time and consists in a 'choice of
character.' The apparent freedom of an individual
act is determined by the necessity of character, but
t h i s c h a r a c t e r i s i t s e l f d e t e r m i n e d by a
transcendental act of choice, a decision — much like
Sartre's 'project' of Er's vision of the soul's choice of
its fate.
Marx concludes this essay by emphasizing the
central role of the concept of life in the
Freiheitsschrift. It provides the same motor for
Schelling's 'system of freedom' as negativity
provides for Hegel's system, that is, it constitutes
the inner self-movement which posits itself in
difference and contradiction in order to recover
itself as fully articulated identity. It is the
achievement of the freedom-essay, claims Marx,
that Schelling conceptualizes the mutual limitation
of human and divine freedom as well as their
integration. A s such, the work attempts to
philosophically actualize the ethical, i.e. to make
the ethical the foundation for the whole system of
philosophy.
Marx' essays are well-written and readily
intelligible, and they frequently furnish valuable
interpretive insights on Schelling's thought. T h i s
reviewer finds p a r t i c u l a r l y informative the
comparisons between Schelling's and Hegel's
concepts and methods. Marx seems willing to
criticize the teleological prejudice to w h i c h
historians of philosophy have often fallen prey and
to view Hegel and Schelling as co-workers striving
to fulfill the cultural and spiritual calling of
philosophy in their age, "die Aufhebung der
Entzweiung."
Michael G . Vater
Marquette University
IN MEMORIAM: G.R.G. M U R E
(1893-1979)
The death of Geoffrey Mure is a greater loss to
the world of scholarship than the present-day
philosophical community is likely to recognize. He
was one of the very few Oxford philosophers who
had the courage and steadfastness to stick to his
staunch belief in speculative Idealism when the
explosion of Logical Positivism and the successive
s h o c k - w a v e s of E m p i r i c i s m a n d O r d i n a r y
10
Language Philosophy overwhelmed the Oxford
schools (Cambridge having long since been
s u b m e r g e d in the A n a l y t i c f l o o d ) . M u r e ' s
philosophy was, therefore, not congenial to his
colleagues. Nevertheless, throughout the hey-day
of the Rylian Empire, Mure remained at Oxford as
the Warden of Merton, exerting what influence he
could to keep alive the tradition of F . H . Bradley,
Harold Joachim and R . G . Collingwood. Had he been
appointed to the White's Chair of Moral Philosophy
or the Wykeham Professorship of Logic, the history
of recent British philosophy would have been
different, but that was hardly to be expected in the
philosophical climate#of the time. The force of the
current against which Mure s w a m can be judged
from the story told in the 1950s that as they walked
down the High, students would point him out in
incredulous wonder as the sole surviving Hegelian
in Oxford.
His writings on Hegel are penetrating in the
depth of their understanding, even though they are
not very voluminous, for he packed more into
c o m p a r a t i v e l y brief e x p o s i t i o n s than other
commentators got into more lengthy works. T h i s
makes his books rather more difficult to read than
many might w i s h and may be one of the reasons
w h y his popularity and renown as a Hegel scholar
is less spectacular than that of others whose grasp
of Hegel is less profound. But the solidity and
insight of Mure's Introduction to Hegel and his
Study of Hegel's Logic are matched only by the
scope and reliability of his scholarship; and what
better guide can one put into the hands of a student
than his Home University Library volume on The
Philosophy of Hegel?
But Mure's work w a s not confined to Hegelian
studies. His first plublished book was one on
Aristotle, a most useful and illuminating work of
which insufficient notice was taken by later
writers. His critique of analytic philosophy,
Retreat From Truth is full of sound insight and is
far from being mere polemic. It makes a significant
positive contribution to constructive philosophy in
its most important fields. A n d his last, Idealist
Epilogue, is a fascinating dialogue in the soul, the
more truly Platonic in that it is finally inconclusive
and the more throught provoking in that it leaves
the weightiest issues open.
What is perhaps most noticeable about Mure's
career, and for his admirers most frustrating, is
that while he w a s one of the best representatives of
Oxford classical and philosophical scholarship in
his day, he was consistently overlooked and
neglected by his colleagues. It is significant and
inexcusable that he was not included in the third
series of Contemporary British Philosophy in the
Muirhead Library, and that the Oxford Press has
allowed his books on Hegel and Aristotle to go out
of print while much of le9s philosophical worth and
interest has been reprinted.
Contributions from Mure's pen will be sorely
missed by this Journal, as w i l l the inspiration and
encouragement he gave to many a younger Hegel
scholar. I had known him personally since my
student days when I attended his lectures in
Oxford. 1 mourn the loss of an irreplaceable friend,
and a teacher and mentor to whom I owe more than I
have ever been able to repay or can adequately
acknowledge.
Errol E . Harris
Northwestern University
NOTICES
The Hegel-Archiv, at Bochum University in
West Germany, has invited the Editor of the O W L to
contribute to the bibliographic section of Hegel¬
Studien. To this end, the Editor respectfully asks
all members of the Society to send him an offprint
of any articles they have published since 1977. If
possible, a 50 to 100 word abstract Of the article
should be attached. These offprints will be placed
in a permanent research-file at the Archiv. The
publication, with an abstract, will be cited in
Hegel-Studien. Your help in completing this
international bibliographic survey is both needed
and appreciated.
The 1974 - 1976 Proceedings of The Hegel
Society of America: Humanities Press, having
unexpectedly suffered the loss of its typesetting
services while in the process of preparing the
Proceedings, has asked the membership of the
society who have already ordered copies to be
patient for a short while longer. Mr. Simon
Silverman, the director of Humanities Press, has
promised as early a delivery date as possible, and
apologizes for the unforeseen delay.
N E W B O O K S — G.W.F. Hegel: Rehgionsphilo-
sophie, Bd. J, Die Vorlesung von 1821. Hers, von
Karl-Heinz Ilting. Istituto Italiano per gli Studi
Filosofici, 1979. xx + 768pp., D M . 160. (address;
Bibliopolis, via Arangio Ruiz 83, Napoli, Italy).
From the publisher:
Unter allen Berliner Vorlesungen Hegels
nimmt die religionsphilosophische Vorlesung von
1821 einen besonderen Rang ein; denn die ist die
einzige, von der uns ein v o l l s t ä n d i g e s Manuskript
Hegels erhalten ist. E s enthält einen in der. Regel
bis ins einzelne ausgearbeiteten Text, der offenbar
d a z u bestimmt w a r , u n v e r ä n d e r t m ü n d l i c h
vorgetragen zu werden. Die Ergänzung elliptischer
S ä t z e , die Hegel g e w i ß w ä h r e n d des mundlichen
11
Vortrags vorahm, ist im allgemeinen hicht
zweifelhaft, und auch die A u s f ü h r u n g von
Gliederungen oder von Skizzen, die gelegentlich
den fortlaufenden Text unterbrechen, läßt sich
e i n i g e r m a ß e n a b s c h ä t z e n . So erweist sich, d a ß der
von früheren Herausgebern vermittelte Eindruck,
dieses M a n u s k r i p t enthalte vorwiegend nur
Stichworte, falsch ist. A l s ein tiefsinniges und
vielschichtiges Werk, dessen architektonische
Gliederung vollkommen ausgearbeitet ist, verdient
es durchaus, unter die großen Werke Hegels
gerechnet und vor allem neben die ihr auch zeitlich
nahestehende ,.Rechtsphilosophie" gestallt zu
werden.
N E W B O O K S — Hegeis Introduction to Aesthetics:
Being The Introduction to the Berlin Aesthetic
Lectures of the 1820s. Translated by T . M. Knox,
with an interpretative essay by C. Karelis. Oxford
University Press, 1979. 160pp.
N E W B O O K S — History and Truth in Hegels
'Phenomenology', by Merold Westphal. Humanities
Press, 1979. 233 + Index, $12.50
From the author: The book is an attempt to give
an interpretation of the Phenomenology from start
to finish and to show that there is a single cogent
argument that runs throughout the whole. It seeks
to address the question of the unity of the text in
exegetical rather than historical terms.
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
The membership of The Hegel Society of
America is encouraged to attend the meeting ot
"The Committee for Pluralism in Philosophy"
which is to be held during the 1979 A.P.A. Eastern
Convention.
T h e m e e t i n g w i l l f e a t u r e a p a n e l of
philosophers presenting short papers on the theme,
"What Would Be a Pluralistic Association of
Philosophers?" Those that have agreed to speak
are:
William Barrett New York University
John Lachs Vanderbilt University
Quentin Lauer Fordham University
Ivor Leclerc Emory University
John McDermott Texas A & M University
Sandra Rosenthal Loyola University (New
Orleans) Evelyn Shirk Hofstra University
John Smith Yale University
The meeting will be chaired by Brude Wilshire of
Rutgers University, and it will be followed by
discussion from the floor.
A D D R E S S C H A N G E ? L E T U S KNOW!