OF THE GOOD. 237 



refer to lies just in this, that they base Ethics on 

 Psychology, and that they depart still further from 

 Comte in finding it necessary to seek for a foundation 

 of Sociology, Ethics, and Psychology alike, in the recon- 

 struction of Metaphysics. Both Fouille'e and Guyau 

 began their career with the study of ancient philosophy, 

 Fouille'e characteristically with that of Plato's ideology, 

 for which he retained a lasting appreciation, Guyau 

 with that of Epicureanism in its ancient and modern 

 expressions. The former never lost an idealism nour- 

 ished by his early studies ; the latter does not conceal 

 the sceptical trait which pervades the eudsemonistic as 

 distinguished from the stoical outrunners of the post- 

 classical philosophy of the old world. 



The principal novel conception which pervades 66. 

 Fouillee's philosophy is this, that the ideas of the idees-force. 

 human mind (using the word idea in the larger sense 

 of Locke and Berkeley) are centres of force, active 

 elements. For these he had coined the term " Ide"es- 

 forces." With this conception he combats many of the 

 older theories both in psychology and ethics. That 

 the ethical problem is with him the central problem 

 is shown by two of his earlier works, the treatise ' La 

 Liberte et le Determinisme ' (first edition, 1872) and his 

 ' Critique des Systemes de Morale Contemporains ' (first 

 edition, 1883): both have run through many editions. 

 The theory of the " ide"es-forces " or of the activity of 

 ideas is the formula in which Fouille'e gave expression to 

 the conviction he had early arrived at, that the ideas of 

 the human mind are not merely epiphenomena, passive 

 reflexions of the physical process in the organism, as 



