Philosophy

Press, Volume C, Issue 29680, 25 November 1961, Page 3

Philosophy

The Disinherited Mind. By Erich Heiler. Penguin Books. 357 pp. Index. Professor Heller is a distinguished critic and assayist and it is important to those interested in philosophy that this book, first published in 1952, is now available as a "Pelican.’’ The writer travels from Goethe to Kraus—taking in turn Nietzsche, Spengler and others—with great erudition and command of taut English, to lay bare not only the themes of the great German philosophers but the basic fact underlying all their work, namely, “the utterly and hopelessly disinherited state of the European mind, berefit of religious conviction and tormented by religious yearnings.” Great emphasis is laid upon the work of Goethe, the last great poet of Germany. A long and critical account of Faust enriches the penetrating analysis of Goethe’s work. The same penetration is seen in Professor Heller's survey of Nietzsche and Spengler. It is with Kraus that we come close to the German mind. Kraus was probably the most important writer during the last fifty years. He was “besieged by the spectres of the spiritual decomposition of his age.” Kraus quotes Kierkegaard, who said, “the individual cannot help his age: he can only express that it is doomed;” and this probably reflects the truth that lies behind the title “The Disinherited Mind.” The final essay, "The Hazard of Modern Poetry,” is outstanding in scope and depth. To the studious this is a disturbing and enlightening book.