Myth is like religion: both present one and the same fundamental problem—that of the whole of existence.

The history of philosophy, like every area of human endeavor, has given rise to criticisms and reservations. Nobody has expressed this more vehemently than Schopenhauer. “To study philosophy, not by reading the actual works of the philosophers, but with the aid of summaries of their doctrines in a history of philosophy, is like having someone else chew one's own food.”

In a general way, Schopenhauer's reservations apply to all history of philosophy, not only to one of its aspects. Nor are they directed against history itself, but specifically against the history of philosophy. The plight of the history of philosophy is worse than that of other fields of history precisely because philosophy itself happens to have the most favorable conditions. In effect, political or economic events are in the realm of the past, while philosophical events remain in the present in the form of manuscripts and books. For this reason political or economic history has a raison d'être: in it a historian reconstructs that which no longer exists, whereas a historian of philosophy merely reproduces what is.

To speak of oral narratives or song-poems, particularly those of primitive peoples, as constituting true literature has until recently met with the greatest suspicion not only from the general public but from students of literature and, indeed, from most ethnologists as well. Their objections are basically of two kinds. No literature is possible, they contend, without writing, and the languages spoken by primitive peoples are inadequate both in vocabulary and the range of ideas which can be expressed in them to permit the development of what we call true literature. Both of these contentions are, I feel, quite incorrect. One has only to read such studies as those of F. Boas and Edward Sapir to realize on how slight a basis of fact such statements rest. There is no need, consequently, to spend any time refuting the theories of philosophers like Lévy-Bruhl or E. Cassirer concerning the structure of primitive languages. The only thing that can be said in defense of their generalizations is that, given the manner in which many of the recorders of these languages presented their data and the many loose statements they made, it is easy to see how Lévy-Bruhl and Cassirer and those who were influenced by them arrived at their unsound generalizations. The first objection, particularly, that without writing no substantial literature can possibly develop, will, I am certain, be adequately disproved by the examples of prose and poetry which I am presenting in this essay.

Dehydroxylated sericites were stirred in the various salt solutions, or washed several times with various salt solutions using a centrifuge. By these treatments a seriate of the 2M type was easily transformed into an interstratified mineral of the rectorite type when a sericite was treated with sodium salts, and random mixed-layer mineral was formed from 1M sericite. The formation of a rectorite-type mixed-layer mineral from 2M sericite can be explained by the (OH) bond direction after the extraction of the potassium ions.

The adsorption of nitroxide spin probes on smectites solvated in liquids of greatly different polarity was studied using electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy. Adsorbed probes demonstrate various degrees of restricted rotational motion and alignment at the silicate surfaces, depending upon the properties of the solvating liquid. The results are interpreted in terms of direct surface—molecule interaction modified by solvent competition effects. A fraction of the probe molecules is immobilized in many of the solvated clays because of small spacings between platelets. The data indicate lowered reactivity of surface-adsorbed molecules, especially in the case of hydrated smectites.

Aged suspensions of microspheres and two kaolinites exhibit several horizontal layers. Particle concentration is greater at the top of a layer; lower layer tops have increasing particle concentrations. Lower layers also settle more rapidly than upper layers; however, an increase in original suspension concentration results in a proportional increase in the particle concentration of comparable layers and causes comparable layers to settle at a slower rate. The average equivalent diameter of particles within and between kaolinite layers is identical. The maximum measured diameters are also identical. Microsphere layers show similar uniformity of average and maximum diameters. Ultimate settling of layers in suspension does not result in observable layers in the sediment. Data are interpreted as indicating that, in a colloidal suspension, particles interact to become observable as definite horizontal layers. A sequence of mechanisms is proposed for layer formation.

The term acculturation was first used by American scholars in dealing with cultural changes in the American Indian society; however, I would like to use this term a bit more freely.

Not long ago, when general linguistics tended to be identified with the philosophy of language, a linguist entitling a short article “The Word” would have been rightfully accused of unbearable presumptuousness. Any discussion of the word involved, in fact dealing with the relationship between thought and language, that is, penetrating into an area which the linguist neither dared nor desired to exclude from his researches but in which he felt ill-equipped to accomplish anything worthwhile alone. In the second place, it involved all the questions raised by the nature of the sign, in other words, semiology in its entirety. Finally it led to reconsidering the relationships between the “word” and the sentence on the one hand, the word and the “lower” elements of the sequence, syllables and “phonemes” on the other. The question, however, that the linguist could not ask was whether criteria existed that permitted, for all languages and all cases, the identification and delimitation of a segment of the sequence as a determined word. For this it would have been necessary for a linguist to feel that it was his duty to define precisely the terms he used. He would also have needed enough courage to foresee that the term “word” itself might have to be put aside if his researches showed that this term could not be given a universally applicable definition.

Both in the case of colloquial language and in the case of specialized scientific language we always have to face the essential issue : what must we do in order not to be misled by an incorrect use of language? When we refer in general to being misled by some use of language we have two cases in mind: primo, when the language in question wrongly performs its communicative function so that the speaker is unable to convey his ideas to the listener, and, secundo, when the language by means of which we think imposes on us, through its structure and forms fixed by tradition (in the case of natural languages), incorrect ideas about reality (cf. the issues of hypostases). The causes of such and similar difficulties are varied. These difficulties, among other things, suggest the idea that language is not only an instrument, but also an object of research, an idea which induced twentieth century philosophers to engage in the study of language in its ontological, gnosiological, and methodological aspects. The method of semantic analysis, understood as a method of analysis of meanings of words, is directed precisely against these shortcomings of language. That method is meant to prevent semantic and logical errors that encumber the process of thinking with difficulties and hamper communication both with others and with oneself. Among other causes, these errors are due to the ambiguity and vagueness of words.

The nature of the complexes in aqueous solutions of Cu(II) and Ni(II) with diethylenetriamine (dien) and tetraethylenepentamine tetren) is pH-dependent. At M(II):dien = 2 and M(II):tetren = 1, the main complexes are [M(dien H)2(H2O)2]4+ and [M(tetren H)(H2O)2]3+. In excess ligand (pH = 10.30), the majority species are [M(dien)2]2+ and [M(tetren)(H2O)]2+, and considerable amounts of monoprotonated amines are adsorbed. The surface of hectorite prefers the tetragonally distorted complexes in all cases studied. The complexes readily lose their axially coordinated water molecules to form planar complexes on the interlamellar surface. The planar Ni(II)-complexes are diamagnetic, showing that the surface is a very weak axial ligand. The divalent complexes [M(dien)2]2+ and [M(tetren)(H2O]2+ can also be partially transformed to the corresponding planar forms on the surface, especially in the case of [Cu(dien)2]2+. The driving forces are thought to be the acid nature of the clay-adsorbed water and the gain in crystal field stabilization energy of the transition metal ions.

The simplest and no doubt the most persistent of the ideas held on the relationship between society and power, from Menenius Agrippa to Auguste Comte, is that of an analogy between the social body and the human body. Both these men deduced that power is nothing other than the supreme regulating function of all functional activities, as harmoniously integrated in society as they are in human physiology. Ethnographic study often strengthened this organicist conception through description of the various social functions as necessary or vital for the cohesion and the existence of primitive society. But historic societies provide a spectacle quite different from that of an integrated organism. In them social functions are not abstractions but are seen rather in the form of human groups whose relationships can scarcely be said to show an organic solidarity. Within these groups and working to set them against each other, powers have their own interests which they must protect against the inroads of ambitions. The permanence of certain functions (military, religious, and economic, for example) does not imply permanence in the structures which implement them or in the real or fictional power which accompanies them. Their meaning is ambivalent. Obviously, they contribute to the architecture of a society; they may have a latent content which is a disintegrating factor from the moment when their hierarchy no longer suits the changing stratifications of the social body.

Laterite profiles developed from granite in southwestern Australia were studied by scanning electron microscopy. The morphology of soil materials reflects the mineralogy of secondary minerals formed from feldspar. In the saprolite, etched feldspar surfaces are coated with kaolinite or radiating, spherical aggregates of tubular halloysite. In the lower pallid zone these minerals have replaced most of the feldspar. In the upper pallid zone a porous framework has developed consisting mainly of quartz and gibbsite with 5-/μm euhedral gibbsite crystals in voids. Halloysite crystals in the upper pallid zone are partly unrolled and have splayed ends. Differences in mineralogy and morphology between profiles are thought to be due to variations in the intensity of leaching.