Review by Choice Review
Nagy has helped point the way to an important and currently insufficiently developed aspect of current studies of Jung's speculative psychology--i.e., the complex, very broad selection of philosophical modes of inquiry, concepts, conclusions, and perspectives on man and his relation to reality, which Jung took into account in his reflections and many of which he appropriated in his published work. Wisely, Nagy has included material from Chinese humanism (notably, of course, the I Ching) and Western alchemy. Most of this historical material, however, consists of very extensive selections from the pre-Socratic Greeks, Plato, theories of knowledge from Descartes to Kant, the 19th-century Schopenhauer, von Helmholtz, skeptics, and numerous others. She attempts to provide the necessary philosophical background for the study of this material with respect to Jung. Among Western philosophers, however, not only the value but also the very meaning of the work of these Western thinkers are matters of ongoing controversy. Although the volume is very clearly written, considerable philosophical sophistication is needed not only to comprehend what Nagy summarizes and interprets but also to assess the interpretations that she gives to the various aspects of this material. Index; extensive bibliography; full documentation for each section. Graduate level. M. C. Rose emerita, Goucher College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
