with an afterword by John William Miller

Four stimulating essays: "The Sportive Origin of the State," "Unity and Diversity in Europe," "Man the Technician," and "History as a System."

"Senor Ortega y Gasset has contributed a thoughtful and a careful analysis of our present situation. If he is correct, then nationalism and liberalism as we have known them in the past are doomed. A new and perhaps a better order and conditioning of life are on the way. This book attempts to justify historically the coming of great change—the same great change that was prophesied by Wiliam Morris in England, more than half a century ago." —New York Times

Erudite and eloquent, John William Miller's writing engages readers with his "earthy" treatment of basic philosophical questions. Designed as an introduction to a compelling historicist philosophy, this volume presents Miller's best and most representative essays in a single, authoritative edition. Miller (1895-1978) taught at Williams College, and he is well known for his extraordinary teaching (described in Masters: Portraits of Great Teachers). He was also a philosopher of the first rank, who arrived at a strikingly original reinterpretation of the history of philosophy and the perennial philosophical problems, especially dualism. Challenging the dogmatism and nihilism that mark so much of recent philosophy, Miller advocated a thoughtful and engaged approach to life - one that revitalizes philosophical activity, embraces history, and joins reflection with participation in a democratic community. The editors have selected twenty-nine essays and have composed succinct introductions to each. Joseph P. Fell has contributed a general introduction that places Miller's thought in context and exhibits the contemporary relevance of his philosophy.

They speak to anyone who has been baffled by the old conflict between personal freedom and causal order. More widely, they examine the role of action in the projection of any general order, including the physical. They find history as the career and evolution of self-criticizing and self-correcting action. They reject all "theories" of history, whether as a chaos or an episode in an ahistoric totality. They propose a common source of science and the humanities, of laboratory and the Muses. Key words here are act and action. They contrast with passivity and with the convention that requires us to keep out of our own thought in order to avoid illusion and egotistical pretentiousness.

Discusses the nature of psychology, compares the theories of psychoanalysis and behaviorism, and shows the unity of general and abnormal psychology.

A classic volume by a noted philosopher, available again. John William Miller (1895-1978) taught at Williams College, where from 1945 to 1960 he was Mark Hopkins Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy. His extraordinary teaching is described in Masters: Portraits of Great Teachers, edited by Joseph Epstein. While deeply indebted to Plato, Kant, and Hegel, Miller arrived at a strikingly original reinterpretation of the history of philosophy, which, he believed, resolved long-standing epistemological and moral problems generated by that history. In The Definition of the Thing, an unusually provocative and original essay, Miller had works out a number of the basic contentions of his mature philosophy.

John William Miller (1895-1978) taught at Williams College, where from 1945 to 1960 he was Mark Hopkins Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy. His extraordinary teaching is described in Masters: Portraits of Great Teachers, edited by Joseph Epstein. While deeply indebted to Plato, Kant, and Hegel, Miller arrived at a strikingly original reinterpretation of the history of philosophy, which, he believed, resolved long-standing epistemological and moral problems generated by that history.

The Philosophy of History criticizes all attempts to interpret history on premises not themselves historical. Miller holds that "to view history philosophically is to consider it as a constitutional mode of experience, a way of organization no less fundamental than physics or logic".

In The Definition of the Thing, an unusually provocative and original essay, Miller had already worked out a number of the basic contentions of his mature philosophy.