Four Modern Philosophers: Carnap, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Sartre

by Arne Næss

Genres: Philosophy

383 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1968

About the author

Næss was a Norwegian philosopher, known foremost as the founder of the concept Deep Ecology
Næss combined his ecological vision with Gandhian nonviolence and on several occasions participated in direct action events. He was the youngest person to ever be promoted to professor at Oslo University (27), a position he inhabited from 1939 to 1970.
Næss' main philosophical work from the 1950s was entitled Interpretation and Preciseness. . He later developed the conclusions in that book into a simplified, practical textbook, entitled Communication and Argument, which became a valued introduction to pragmatics or rather "language logic", and was thus used over many decades as a sine qua non for the preparatory examination at the University of Oslo, later known as "Examen Philosophicum".

From the 1960s and forward his work came to be more and more focused on what would later be known as deep ecology.
The name was first introduced to the public by Næss in 1972 during a lecture and was later explained further in The Shallow and the Deep Long-Range Ecology Movement: A Summary (published 1973 in the Inquiry journal).

Reviews

[ThePagemaster · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book goes into a fair bit of depth dealing with, as the title suggests, four (relatively) modern philosophers. They are Rudolf Carnap, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Martin Heidegger, and Jean-Paul Sartre. These folks lived and wrote in the 20th century so perhaps calling them ”modern” would be slightly misleading, but seeing as the book was written in the 60s, I suppose it makes sense.

Each philosopher’s life is presented, along with their main works, which is followed by their intellectual impact and legacy. It is done with precision and richness with the reader finding him- or herself packing their brains with knowledge as they flip through the pages. We are left with a decent understanding of the philosophies of the four individuals after finishing the book, which is greatly complemented by listening to youtube clips to solidify and confirm one’s understanding of the information that is presented.

Having prior knowledge and some sort of foundation in philosophy is a necessity if one is to get the most out of this one. Otherwise there is a risk of getting lost in a maze of complicated terminology and trains of thought that would add nothing but a blooming buzzing confusion in the mind of the reader. There is a risk of getting discombobulated anyways as the language use is clearly not as modern as the title of the book suggests.

This is also what I believe to be the main drawback of the book. The style of writing is overly complicated, adding adverbs, conjunctions, prepositional phrases, and embedded clauses in a way that is both redundant and frustrating for the reader. At least that’s my impression of it. Though I don’t know anything about the author, I get the feeling that this is somewhat of an intellectual snob who derives pleasure in expressing himself in an inaccessible way. It takes a toll on the reader’s brain as pretty much every single sentence has to be read with immense concentration. I believe the original was written in Norwegian, meaning that this is an English translation, leaving me a bit unsure as to whether this is a critique of the author or of the translator.

Other than the aforementioned problem, I enjoyed reading the book and had some deep thinking experiences while doing so. Some sections I appreciated more than others were Carnap’s idea of metaphysicians being like musicians without musical talent, Wittgenstein’s ”Tractatus”, Heidegger’s ideas on the project of being and the nature of time, and Sartre’s views on solipsism. All of which sent me on an introspective spiral on the nature of things, giving way to thoughts I haven’t explored prior to this. Some of these thoughts may not be at all what the philosophers themselves had intended, but just as Wittgenstein is said to have asserted about philosophy, engaging in this field should be a co-creating experience for the reader of whatever they immerse themselves in.

While mentally taxing and somewhat exhausting, reading Four Modern Philosophers rekindled my interest and passion for philosophy, and I will continue embarking on the thinking man’s adventure in times to come. However, in the near future I’ll have to let some steam out and will read some much more accessible pieces in order to recharge my intellectual batteries for the next quest.

4 tautological truths out of 5 possible.

[Ross Jensen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found the chapter on Wittgenstein illuminating, but I was sorely disappointed by the quite minimal way in which Naess attempts to relate or synthesize the work of these major figures.

[Frank Spencer]

Covers Carnap, Wittgenstrin, Heidegger, and Sartre