Books: Thinking About Thinking

AN INQUIRY INTO MEANING & TRUTH—Bertrand Russell—Norton ($3.75).

THE PROMISE OF SCIENTIFIC HUMANISM —Oliver L Reiser—Oskar Piest ($4).

The world is beset with problems which badly need thinking through. First problem, say professional thinkers—i.e., philosophers—is how to go about thinking at all. Two new books attack the impasse. Bertrand Russell pursues An Inquiry into

Meaning & Truth. So does Oliver L. Reiser, philosophy professor at the University of Pittsburgh, who then proceeds "toward a unification of scientific, religious, social and economic thought" in The Promise of Scientific Humanism.

"Practical" men always scorn the philosopher as...