Metaphysics of Pragmatism

Considered by some the most controversial American philosopher of contemporary times, SIDNEY HOOK (1902-1989) was infamous for the wild swing in his political thought over the course of his career, starting out as a young Marxist before the Great Depression and ending up a vehement anti-Communist in his later years. The Metaphysics of Pragmatism-Hook's first work, originally published in 1927-is something of a malicious joke on the philosopher's part, one he readily acknowledges in his introduction, a bringing together of one discipline, that of metaphysics, with the one generally regarded as its polar opposite, that of pragmatism, for the purposes of rescuing the second. Though not a political work at all-except, possibly, one of academic politics-this is nevertheless a fascinating introduction to this notorious figure. In its expression of the author's "e;passionate moral interest in the creative power... of human thinking,"e; it may, perhaps, begin to lend some understanding to the shifts in his own thinking that characterized his work.-Print ed.