The Modern Mind

Kevin Wall O.P. earned degrees from the Angelicum in Rome and from The University of Fribourg where he studied Hegelian thought under the renowned Polish logician Joseph Bochenski. He died unexpectedly in 1988. He was a revered teacher who could illuminate philosophical ideas for the critical minds of his students from his encyclopedic reach into philosophy, science, theology, and art. Much of his estate was organized in notebooks, three-ring binders, and computer floppy disks. In the collection, his incomplete manuscript on the modern mind with its clearly prophetic observations was of great interest. It was evident that he had labored for several years on Western thinking and the dialectical science that has dominated it. He says, "The prime speculative error of the modern mind was to regard dialectical science as potential to nothing higher."