REVIEWS 



Modern Science and Materialism. By Hugh Elliot. [Pp. viii +211.] 

 (London : Longmans, Green & Co., 1919. Price 7s. 6d. net.) 



The rapid strides of modern science are largely due to specialisation and divi- 

 sion of labour. Specialisation, however, has its defects as well as its virtues. 

 One may fail to see the wood for the trees. Yet man owes it to himself to 

 take his bearings in the vast universe in which he lives. Implicitly, perhaps, 

 each man has a philosophy of his own. Unfortunately it is not always closely 

 related to the science of his day, not even when he himself is a man of science. 

 It is obviously desirable once in a way to piece together the main results of 

 the principal sciences, and to sketch in broad outline the general pattern of 

 the world as it would present itself to a scientist who took the whole world to 

 task. In Modern Science and Materialism, Mr. Elliot has attacked this ex- 

 tremely difficult task of looking at the universe as a whole from the standpoint 

 of recent science, and he is to be congratulated both on his boldness in making 

 the attempt and on the measure of success which has crowned his enterprise. 



The first four chapters of Mr. Elliot's book give a lucid and interesting 

 survey of the more comprehensive theories of modern stronomy, Physics, 

 Chemistry, and Biology, in so far as they have an obvious bearing on a philoso- 

 phical orientation. To the majority of ordinary readers these chapters will 

 probably prove the most helpful. The author himself presumably attaches 

 more importance to the last two chapters, on Materialism and Idealism, in 

 which he expounds his own philosophical ideas. But to the present reviewer, 

 Mr. Elliot's discussions of psychological and philosophical problems do not 

 compare favourably with the rest of the book. The last chapter in particular 

 is not sufficiently clear to be j udged adequately, and not satisfactory in so far 

 as it can be judged at all. What is clear is that Mr. Elliot is utterly opposed 

 to Spiritualism, while he is prepared to come to terms with most of the other 

 philosophical " isms." His aim apparently is to effect some kind of fusion or 

 reconciliation between Agnosticism, Materialism, Idealism, Monism, and 

 Sensationalism by means of various compromises. To Agnosticism he con- 

 cedes that a complete knowledge of the universe would require an infinity of 

 senses, as against the meagre half-dozen which man possesses. To Materialism 

 he allows that the final units of which everything (including the organic 

 and the conscious) is composed are electrons subject to uniform mechanical 

 laws. Idealism and Sensationalism are conciliated by the admission that all 

 knowledge, and therefore all science, begins with sensations. But since these 

 sensations are only reactions of complex molecules of protoplasm it is unneces- 

 sary to posit more than one kind of ultimate unit, and Mr. Elliot is therefore 

 a Monist. 



These bald data ought to be enough to make the reader turn to Mr. 

 Elliot's book, which will certainly be found stimulating. For Mr. Elliot 

 (notwithstanding his hostility to teleology) wrote his book with a purpose, 

 namely, to promote " reconstruction " in the realm of ideas. Like Huxley 

 before him, our author evidently believes that mankind will never find salva- 

 tion until they learn to dispense with every kind of make-believe, and face 

 every problem in the true spirit of Science. A. Wolf. 



44 677 



