Structure and Being: A Theoretical Framework for a Systematic Philosophy

A magisterial work in the grand tradition of systematic philosophy not seen in this country perhaps since Alfred North Whitehead’s Process and Reality (1929), this book by a leading German philosopher aims to resurrect systematic philosophy as an essential part of the theoretical enterprise. In Lorenz Puntel’s vision, philosophy as the universal science can be holistic without being imperialistic.

The book presents theoretical frameworks as indispensable for any and all theorizing. It argues that there can be truths only relative to sufficiently determinable theoretical frameworks, and that all such frameworks are genuinely revelatory ontologically. No problematic relativism results, however, because such frameworks can be compared and thereby ranked with respect to their theoretical adequacy.

Structure and Being contributes to the reconciliation of analytic and continental philosophy by insisting upon clarity and precision, as the former does, while aiming for comprehensiveness, as the latter often does.

Lorenz B. Puntel, born in 1935, studied philosophy, psychology, classical philology, and Catholic theology in Munich, Vienna, Paris, Rome, and Innsbruck. He received a doctorate in philosophy in 1968 and one in Catholic theology in 1969. He qualified as a university lecturer in philosophy in 1972 and became Professor of Philosophy at the University of Munich in 1978. In 2001, he became Professor Emeritus.

Alan White received his BA from Tulane University in 1972 and his PhD from the Pennsylvania State University in 1980. In 2000, he became Mark Hopkins Professor of Philosophy at Williams College.