Interpreting the Universe Author:John MacMurray Long before the term became common, Macmurray was a "postmodern thinker." At the heart of all his work was his attempt to reverse modern philosophy's commitment to an "egocentric" starting point, with the self understood primarily as thinker withdrawn from action and participation in the world. Macmurray did not reject the work of philosophy a... more »s a reflective activity, but he tried to recast its role in the service of more fulfilling and more basic personal communion with others, with the world, and, ultimately, with God. This concern for community, or persons in relation, has become one of the major preoccupations of many of the cutting-edge debates in contemporary philosophy and religion and is inspiring new directions in moral theory, in both philosophical and religious circles. Indeed, it can be said that Macmurray's work is really a "philosophy of community," a term now much in vogue in contemporary philosophy as well as in religious thought. Macmurray argued that philosophers should learn to think from the standpoint of action, which involves participation in real life, instead of from the point of view of the pure thinking self for whom the world is an object. Although this line of thought was developed after the writing of INTERPRETING THE UNIVERSE, which was first published in 1936, and did not reach full expression until Macmurray's Gifford Lectures of 1953-54, the foundations for it are laid in this book. Consequently, it is essential preliminary reading for THE SELF AS AGENT and PERSONS IN RELATION.« less