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Being and Other Realities
Book jacket/ 'Being and Other Realities,' by our greatest living metaphysician, pushes Paul Weiss's philosophy to new subtlety. It moves on two fronts. On one, it further refines the categorial scheme Weiss has been developing over 50 years. On the other, it is a shining example of radical questioning and exploration. This is an important book, especially for philosophers like myself, who believe being is not another reality." --Robert C. Neville, Boston University, Author of Normative Cultures and The Truth of Broken Symbols
- GenresPhilosophy
355 pages, Paperback
First published January 29, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 22, 2022
A Late Work Of An American Metaphysician
Paul Weiss (1901 -- 2002) was an American philosopher who thought in an ambitious, grand manner, seeking a broad view of reality. He was born on New York City's Lower East Side and ultimately earned his PhD at Harvard with Alfred North Whitehead. Weiss worked with Charles Hartshorne on editing and publishing the papers of the American philosopher Charles Peirce. He studied the history of philosophy with Etienne Gilson. Weiss was known as a dynamic teacher in a career spanning over sixty years at Bryn Mawr, Yale, and Catholic University.
Weiss wrote prolifically on a variety of philosophical themes. In 1958, Weiss wrote a book titled "Modes of Being" which articulated his broad philosophical position. Years later, in 1995, Weiss wrote "Being and Other Realities", perhaps the most developed statement of his philosophical position. Unfortunately, Weiss' books have been little studied subsequent to his death.
In the Preface to "Being and Other Realities", Weiss described the broad, ambitious scope of the work, stating: "It is best read as a proposed map of all reality, and is best tested by seeing how it meets the challenges: does it squarely face and answer the questions that a claimed comprehensive account of reality raises? Could it be lived?"
Weiss develops a pluralist non-reductive philosophy based on what he terms "actualities", or concrete existing things. Actualites are found in four separate "domains" of reality developed in the first four chapters of the book: 1. the humanized world, 2. humans, persons, and indivdiuals, 3. nature, 4. the cosmos, Weiss argues that it is critical to understand each of these domains and not to try to equate one to another.
Each domain for Weiss has its own unifying "ultimate" and there are also important ways of "mediating" as humans do from one domain to the others. The chief of these Weiss terms the "dunamis-rational" of which Weiss says: "the Rational is intelligible and structuralizing: the Dunamis is pulsative and vitalizing." Some philosophers emphasize Dunamis and intuitionism while other recognize only the Rational. As he does in much of his thinking, Weiss wants to have both.
With all this, we are not yet through with Weiss' account of reality. He saves the broadest and most obscure for last: the study of Being. For Weiss, Being is necessary and the source of the ultimates, the domains, and the concrete actualities. While necessary itself, Being allows for contingeny in the world of the actualities. There is a broad obscure monism, probably a mysticism, in Weiss' account of Being together with the pluralism of the domains. The focus on Being will remind readers of Heidegger, a philosopher that Weiss treats with rejection.
Weiss offers a broad historically based account of the development of metaphysics, of how philosophical thought develops through competing metaphysical views, and of what Weiss sees as the importance of philosophical, metaphysical thinking. The book begins with a lengthy "Recapitulative Introduction" which sets out the roadmap and the goals of the book well. I found it worth rereading the introdction after reading the book. Weiss says:
"The present work begins with an examination of the humanized world, and then moves on to consider individual persons, natural beings, and cosmic units, each in a domain of its own. It then faces the problem of how one can pass from one domain to another, attends to the ultimates that all actualities presuppose, and arrives at the Being that necessarily is. It then takes account of the fact that Being necessarily produces the ultimates, and how these can jointly produce the actualities at which one had begun, as well as others existing in other domains. At the end, it opens up the question of whether or not it could be lived."
The writing style and organization of this book are mixed. Much of it is abstract and highly difficult to follow. At times, when the book becomes more personal, it can be eloquent. Sections of the book are written in the form of a discussion between Weiss and an interlocutor who, at several points, sharply critiques Weiss for the numbing, obscure character of the book. I thought these dialogue passages helped move the book along.
In its scope, abstractness, and obscurity, "Being and Other Realities" is far outside the mainstream of current philosophical thinking. I have been interested in Weiss for a long time and found it valuable to read and struggle with this book.
Robin Friedman
Paul Weiss (1901 -- 2002) was an American philosopher who thought in an ambitious, grand manner, seeking a broad view of reality. He was born on New York City's Lower East Side and ultimately earned his PhD at Harvard with Alfred North Whitehead. Weiss worked with Charles Hartshorne on editing and publishing the papers of the American philosopher Charles Peirce. He studied the history of philosophy with Etienne Gilson. Weiss was known as a dynamic teacher in a career spanning over sixty years at Bryn Mawr, Yale, and Catholic University.
Weiss wrote prolifically on a variety of philosophical themes. In 1958, Weiss wrote a book titled "Modes of Being" which articulated his broad philosophical position. Years later, in 1995, Weiss wrote "Being and Other Realities", perhaps the most developed statement of his philosophical position. Unfortunately, Weiss' books have been little studied subsequent to his death.
In the Preface to "Being and Other Realities", Weiss described the broad, ambitious scope of the work, stating: "It is best read as a proposed map of all reality, and is best tested by seeing how it meets the challenges: does it squarely face and answer the questions that a claimed comprehensive account of reality raises? Could it be lived?"
Weiss develops a pluralist non-reductive philosophy based on what he terms "actualities", or concrete existing things. Actualites are found in four separate "domains" of reality developed in the first four chapters of the book: 1. the humanized world, 2. humans, persons, and indivdiuals, 3. nature, 4. the cosmos, Weiss argues that it is critical to understand each of these domains and not to try to equate one to another.
Each domain for Weiss has its own unifying "ultimate" and there are also important ways of "mediating" as humans do from one domain to the others. The chief of these Weiss terms the "dunamis-rational" of which Weiss says: "the Rational is intelligible and structuralizing: the Dunamis is pulsative and vitalizing." Some philosophers emphasize Dunamis and intuitionism while other recognize only the Rational. As he does in much of his thinking, Weiss wants to have both.
With all this, we are not yet through with Weiss' account of reality. He saves the broadest and most obscure for last: the study of Being. For Weiss, Being is necessary and the source of the ultimates, the domains, and the concrete actualities. While necessary itself, Being allows for contingeny in the world of the actualities. There is a broad obscure monism, probably a mysticism, in Weiss' account of Being together with the pluralism of the domains. The focus on Being will remind readers of Heidegger, a philosopher that Weiss treats with rejection.
Weiss offers a broad historically based account of the development of metaphysics, of how philosophical thought develops through competing metaphysical views, and of what Weiss sees as the importance of philosophical, metaphysical thinking. The book begins with a lengthy "Recapitulative Introduction" which sets out the roadmap and the goals of the book well. I found it worth rereading the introdction after reading the book. Weiss says:
"The present work begins with an examination of the humanized world, and then moves on to consider individual persons, natural beings, and cosmic units, each in a domain of its own. It then faces the problem of how one can pass from one domain to another, attends to the ultimates that all actualities presuppose, and arrives at the Being that necessarily is. It then takes account of the fact that Being necessarily produces the ultimates, and how these can jointly produce the actualities at which one had begun, as well as others existing in other domains. At the end, it opens up the question of whether or not it could be lived."
The writing style and organization of this book are mixed. Much of it is abstract and highly difficult to follow. At times, when the book becomes more personal, it can be eloquent. Sections of the book are written in the form of a discussion between Weiss and an interlocutor who, at several points, sharply critiques Weiss for the numbing, obscure character of the book. I thought these dialogue passages helped move the book along.
In its scope, abstractness, and obscurity, "Being and Other Realities" is far outside the mainstream of current philosophical thinking. I have been interested in Weiss for a long time and found it valuable to read and struggle with this book.
Robin Friedman
November 8, 2016
Metaphysics, with ontology and epistemology recombined, is profoundly revived in summary of a life of seeking a conceptual structure.
While the Big Bang was one ontology, the impression on thinking about this book, is that life was a second Big Bang, with nothing preceding it and every thing meaningful after. While the physical universe is in energy and matter, the latter in particles, atoms, chunks, and long lived helium bombs or black holes, with all of these affected by gravity over time, life while not overcoming thermodynamics globally, does so locally by storing information in chemistry, the genome, nerves, images and internet and using that to manage energy and with that matter. If life is the connection between data and what now, it is also the maker of meaning. A conceptually parallel view is that life, however primitive, is the first meta-level above matter and energy, and upon that other ways of being are built, perhaps eventually reaching the humane.
This book is supplemented by 28 critical essays, well curated, in the Library of Living Philosophers Volume XXII. While in the mode of modern expositors of philosophy, it explores the many interconnections with a breadth of thinking.
While the Big Bang was one ontology, the impression on thinking about this book, is that life was a second Big Bang, with nothing preceding it and every thing meaningful after. While the physical universe is in energy and matter, the latter in particles, atoms, chunks, and long lived helium bombs or black holes, with all of these affected by gravity over time, life while not overcoming thermodynamics globally, does so locally by storing information in chemistry, the genome, nerves, images and internet and using that to manage energy and with that matter. If life is the connection between data and what now, it is also the maker of meaning. A conceptually parallel view is that life, however primitive, is the first meta-level above matter and energy, and upon that other ways of being are built, perhaps eventually reaching the humane.
This book is supplemented by 28 critical essays, well curated, in the Library of Living Philosophers Volume XXII. While in the mode of modern expositors of philosophy, it explores the many interconnections with a breadth of thinking.
September 17, 2015
Paul Weiss gives an interesting take on Being. He offers a content-level split on the domains of Being as a recognition that we cannot have a "flat" experience since so many facets of human experience today are incompossible, on different levels, that do not meet.
Nonetheless, he carries with himself a strong notion of Kantian transcendentalism as a mark on how to appropriate Rationality and Dunamis. What he calls Dunamis is simply contingency, the actualization of being itself. In a way, I think he misses a more elegant picture, one that doesn't allow for a simple numbering of different domains through various kinds of relations, as he calls each marked by "Ultimates": "Voluminosity, Coordinator, Affiliator, Assessor" In introducing these terms, Weiss leaves it very vague. Perhaps these are explained in past texts, but he lacks a direct explanation here, and I for one would have liked more direct talk.
It's great that he wants to bring Being back into the world of humanity, with culture and science. In this sense, he works as a kind of heir to Heidigger. Unfortunately, wanting to say something and being too aloof to say it doesn't help his argument. The main pull he makes that is different, I believe, to be his attempt to include agency: praxis, as one might call it. Much of what he says however is still too vague to be of use, and it's simply a translation of what we already know about the world into the philosophic terms he wishes to utilize. In a way, I was at times embarrassed reading this book because he tries so hard to be deep, that he mystifies his relations a little too much. I don't mind poetic language or mystification but I do not find it useful if you want people to utilize and fully embody the project as you wish to color it.
Weiss however is right, that philosophy is a deeply personal endeavor, one fraught with difficult and self revelation. A difficulty in writing a book like this is being able to effectively convey what you want to say. He doesn't throw too much history of philosophy at you, or too much jargon, which comes at first as a relief, but very quickly becomes a failure of the book to explain itself better.
What I got out of it was merely a reinforcement of traditional philosophy as I understood it. He needs to demonstrate the feasibility of his terms more as they differentiate and influence one another. Having 4 terms named as he does doesn't help, since he spends most of the book waxing about the different areas of human experience (nature, cosmos, individuation, culture and so on). His first chapter was very good, however.
Nonetheless, he carries with himself a strong notion of Kantian transcendentalism as a mark on how to appropriate Rationality and Dunamis. What he calls Dunamis is simply contingency, the actualization of being itself. In a way, I think he misses a more elegant picture, one that doesn't allow for a simple numbering of different domains through various kinds of relations, as he calls each marked by "Ultimates": "Voluminosity, Coordinator, Affiliator, Assessor" In introducing these terms, Weiss leaves it very vague. Perhaps these are explained in past texts, but he lacks a direct explanation here, and I for one would have liked more direct talk.
It's great that he wants to bring Being back into the world of humanity, with culture and science. In this sense, he works as a kind of heir to Heidigger. Unfortunately, wanting to say something and being too aloof to say it doesn't help his argument. The main pull he makes that is different, I believe, to be his attempt to include agency: praxis, as one might call it. Much of what he says however is still too vague to be of use, and it's simply a translation of what we already know about the world into the philosophic terms he wishes to utilize. In a way, I was at times embarrassed reading this book because he tries so hard to be deep, that he mystifies his relations a little too much. I don't mind poetic language or mystification but I do not find it useful if you want people to utilize and fully embody the project as you wish to color it.
Weiss however is right, that philosophy is a deeply personal endeavor, one fraught with difficult and self revelation. A difficulty in writing a book like this is being able to effectively convey what you want to say. He doesn't throw too much history of philosophy at you, or too much jargon, which comes at first as a relief, but very quickly becomes a failure of the book to explain itself better.
What I got out of it was merely a reinforcement of traditional philosophy as I understood it. He needs to demonstrate the feasibility of his terms more as they differentiate and influence one another. Having 4 terms named as he does doesn't help, since he spends most of the book waxing about the different areas of human experience (nature, cosmos, individuation, culture and so on). His first chapter was very good, however.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews