NATURE 



361 



THURSDAY, JULY 10, 1919. 



I'RDDi crn !■: i)r.\i.nv. 



(i) Strife oi Svstcnis dud Productive Duality: 

 An Essay ni 'I'liilosophy. By Prof. W. H. 

 Sheldon. Pp. x r 5,34. (Cambridge, Mass. : 

 Harvard L'niversilv Pnss ; London: Humphrey 

 MilforH, Oxford Lnixrisity Press, 1918.) 

 Price 15.S". lui. 



.(i!, Self and Xei^lthi'ur: An h'Jliical Study. Hy 

 Edward W. Hirst. Pp. xxi-291. (London: 

 Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1919.) Price lo.v. 

 net. 



THE idea, deeply ingrained in our intellectual 

 nature, that the constituents of reality, 

 could we only discriminate them, would be found 

 to be sing^le and simple is neither borne out nor 

 sv:pported by any actual research, scientific or 

 ohilosophical. We are for ever asking^ what 

 a thing is, and for ever surprised that the 

 Hilv answer we can get is in terms of what 

 a thing does. Doing implies process, process 

 means activity, and the concept of activity 

 ■nvolves the idea of opposition within the con- 

 ept itselL 



(i) Prof. Sheldon, in his interesting survey of 

 he strife of systems, has made a bold applica- 

 :ion of this fact to the problem of philosophy. 

 He presents difficult problems in a pleasant, flow- 

 ing style which is itself a source of pleasure 

 to the reader. The thesis which he defends 

 IS that the lack of unity in philosophy and 

 the tendency of philosophical systems to 

 present sharp antagonisms, far from being, 

 as is so often urged by critics, a scandal 

 of reason, are the very conditions of progress. It 

 is no new doctrine ; it is, in fact, the well-known 

 Hegelian theory of the dialectic, according to 

 vvhich the advance of thought is through contra- 

 ■diction and pure negation to new affirmation and 

 a higher synthesis. Prof. Sheldon proposes, how- 

 ever, a bold application of the principle which 

 would bring within it the Hegelian philosophv 

 itself as one of the systems in strife. This an- 

 .gonism does not merely concern human systems 

 '\ thought. "The deepest trait of reality, that 

 \hich makes it the moving, productive thing 

 is, is just the marriage of two principles 

 hose apparent hostility has constituted the con- 

 inual frustration of man's effort to map the 

 iniverse. " 



I J) Mr. Hirst deals with this strife of systems 

 n ilu tlhital sphere. It is not difficult to under- 

 hand why at the present time there is a lively 

 merest in the ethical problem. Human society 

 undergoing a reconstruction so fundamental 

 nat the chance seems im)\\ oftcrrd to reformers 

 ■■> make actual and pradical ideals which a few 

 ' :u> ai.;(i ■-(•ciiicd remote and xisionarv' and pcs- 

 -;!)le i>\ r, ,dis;iti(,n <,;d\- !)\' slcad\- aiir! jiersistenl 

 jjerscx (T'lii (• ill the cinn-se of fenerations. The 

 n'illcnnium, it is true, loses its a-sthetir ciiarm as 



^■o. 2593, VOL. 103] 



a vision when it becomes plain matter of fact; 

 none the less, the widespread feeling at the 

 present time that, whatever the outcome of our 

 social reconstruction, we are at least enjoying an 

 opportunity such as few now living could have 

 expected to see is sitting its stamp on our specu- 

 h.ti\e thought. 



i'ractical relorniers are not usually tolerant of 

 tile sj)eiulati\e theorists, and the reason is not 

 tai to seek. If the science of political economy 

 has earned for itself the epithet "dismal," the 

 science of ethics most certainly deserves the 

 epithet "dull. " Nowhere in the whole Scheme 

 of philosophy and science does there seem to 

 be such laborious effort combined with such 

 discouraging flatness as in the sphere of 

 speculative ethii s, and yet theoretically ethics 

 is the culminating interest in philosophy. 

 Mr. Hirst's " I^lhical Study"" cannot escape 

 this condemnation, although it makes a brave 

 attempt. It lacks vision and has no audacity. 

 It discusses the problem along the well-worn lines 

 of the attempt to reconcile egoism and altruism. 

 It contains a l; n cl deal of critical exposition of 

 n.odern theories, particularly those ot the late 

 T. H. Green .md the present Hishop of Down, and 

 it is very sympathetic towards Dr. Rashdall's 

 *'Theor\ of (lood and Evil." ll is in the exposi- 

 tion of these writers that the ethical interest of 

 the book centres. The criticism of the earlier 

 classical writers is inadequate, and the quotations 

 are so often at one or even two removes that an 

 uncomfortable doubt creeps in as to the author's 

 acquaintanc^e with the original. -And when we are 

 told that "we owe to Plato one of the greatest 

 literary works, iii which he sketched the constitu- 

 tion of an ideal society," we wonder what class 

 of readers the author has in mind ! The one 

 contemporary philosopher who really may be said 

 to have raised the problem of ethics to a higher 

 plane. Benedetto Croce, is not mentioned, and 

 possiblx the " Philo.sophy of Practice " is as vet 

 unknown to the author. Crocc's distinction 

 between economic and elhii ;d loiuiuct in that 

 treatise appears to the present w fiter to have 

 placed the ethical problem in a new setting and 

 altered the conditions on which it will in future 

 be discussed. 



Mr. Hirst "s book is not confined to ethics; we 

 are soon switched on to pure psychology, and then 

 from psychology to pure metaphysics. The author 

 is thoroughly at home in the most recent philo- 

 sophical literature in I-aigland, and his work is 

 extremelv well-infoimed and instru(ii\ c Thougli 

 he free!\ .-xiM-es-^t's his agret-ment or disagi-ecment 

 with the \arii)us theories lu' notice-., we nexcr get 

 a clear exj)ression of his own \ iew developed inde- 

 pendently. It is this we should like to have, and 

 the disajJiiointment with wliich we close the book 

 in n )t liaxing got it is perhaps the highest praise 

 tile author can wish for as regards the interest his 

 book arouses. 



IL W. C. 

 U 



