THE QUEST FOR BEING (254 pp.)—Sidney Hook—St. Martin’s ($6). In an age when brisk, jet-borne academic types whisk in and out of Washington, the legendary absent-minded professor is an anachronism. But ...

COMMON SENSE AND THE FIFTH AMENDMENT (160 pp.)—Sidney Hook — Criterion ($3). “Have you stopped beating your wife?” is regarded as the symbol of all loaded questions asked by lawyers. But N.Y.U.