The Philosophical Review/Volume 1/Review: Silberstein - The Universe and its Evolution
This pamphlet is a brief extract translated from an Hebrew original of five volumes. The author has one thing in common with the classic speculative thinkers: he believes he has struck out a new, original, perfectly satisfactory, and epoch-making theory of the universe. Nor can one fail to discern behind the poor printing, and the bad English, in the midst of dubious criticisms and speculations of an ostensibly scientific character, flashes of genuine philosophic insight; but these fail to atone for the pre-scientific atmosphere and method of the work. It is the business of the metaphysician, on the basis of all existing knowledge, to conceive as a whole the world which the sciences interpret in parts. Though Mr. Silberstein thinks he is the first to attempt this task, he in reality comes no nearer to it than the beginners of speculation among the Greeks and Hebrews, of whose naïf theorizings the work often reminds one. Of his lengthy criticism of the first principles of physics, this is not the place to speak, though I will venture to say it seems to me beside the mark. What Mr. Silberstein does see clearly — and here he is at one with current philosophy — is the absurdity of speaking of a material universe unrelated to an Intelligence. He makes the world "an emanation of the absolute Intellect, an act of its thought." But so far as the present pamphlet goes, this conception remains unfruitful.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1924, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 99 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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