November lo, 1904] 



NA TURE 



RECENT PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS. 

 (1) .4 Primer of Philosophy. By A. S. Rappoport, 



Ph.D. Pp. iiS. (London: John Murray, 1904.) 



Price is. net. 

 {2} Religion itnd Xattir'n'issenschatt. Line Antivort 



an Professor Liidenburg. By Arthur Titius. Pp. 



1 14. (Tubingen und Leipzig : J. C. B. Mohr (Paul 



Siebeck), 1904.) Price 1.80 marks. 

 (31 Philosophische Propddeiitik aitf Natunvisscnschaft- 



licher Grundlage. By August Schulte-Tigges. 



Zweite verbesserte und vermehrte Auflage. Pp. 



xvi + 221. (Berlin : Georg Reimer.) Price 3 marks. 

 (4) Der Skeptizismus in der Philosophic. By Raoul 



Riehter. Erster Band. Pp. xxiv4-364. (Leipzig: 



Diirr'sche Buchhandlung, 1904.) Price 6 marks. 

 (i) "P^R. RAPPOPORT'S book, which appears in 

 ^-^ Mr. Murray's new series of primers, is on the 

 whole a very satisfactory introduction to the study of 

 (jhilosophy. The statement is always accurate, interest- 

 ing and suggestive, and the terminology is carefully- 

 chosen. There are many interesting quotations; 

 Ijerhaps those from the German will not always be 

 understood without a translation by the average 

 reader of a primer. On p. 2 the statement " it was 

 .istonishment that first made man philosophize " is 

 attributed to .\ristotle. No doubt .Aristotle said so, 

 but Plato had the same idea before him. On p. 45 the 

 term sociology is said to be derived from the Latin 

 word socius, society (sic). 



(2) " Religion und Naturwissenschaft " is a counter- 

 blast to a lecture given by Prof. Ladenburg of Breslau, 

 on the influence of the natural sciences on the 

 W cltanschauung. Prof. Ladenburg, as represented 

 bv the quotations from his work, appears to believe 

 that experiment, observation, induction, are the key 

 of all knowledge, and that all the progress of the last 

 centuries has been caused chiefly by the enlightenment 

 due to the natural sciences. This rather extreme posi- 

 tion Prof. Titius assails with some success, and then 

 proceeds to vindicate the spiritual life of man, 

 individualisation, Werthestinimung, Christianity, even 

 miracles, on lines that are not altogether novel. But 

 the author is no obscurantist, and the argument is 

 probably as convincing as any popular discussion can 

 make it. 



{3) The third work on our list is intended to introduce 

 pupils of the highest classes in Realgymnasien to the 

 philosophic principles that underlie scientific method 

 and the general scientific thought of our time. The 

 first part deals with Methodenlehre, and discusses 

 observation and experiment, induction, causal law and 

 hypothesis, deduction. In the second part, entitled 

 •• The Mechanical View of the Universe, and the 

 Limits of Knowledge," there is an adequate account 

 of such things as atomism, teleology, the Darwinian 

 theory, and the relations of psychical events and their 

 physiological accompaniments. On this last head 

 the author declares himself for a theory of parallelism, 

 not as being the solution of the problem, but the 

 problem itself. The book is excellent both in form and 

 statement, and all the arguments both for and against 

 .1 particular view are most fully and impartially stated. 

 Tlie quotations show a wide range of reading; but it 

 NO. I 8 28, VOL. 7 r] 



would perhaps be well if the author's name and the 

 title of the work in question were added in everv case. 



(4) The first volume of " Der Skeptizismus in der 

 Philosophie " contains an account only of Greek 

 scepticism, that is to say, of Pyrrhonism and of the 

 scepticism of the Later Academy. But as many of the 

 chief problems raised by scepticism in all ages are dis- 

 cussed here at considerable length, this first volume 

 cannot safely be neglected even by those who are chiefly 

 interested in Hume, the " partial " scepticism of Kant, 

 or modern positivism. The author shows himself a 

 most competent guide. He is always fair minded ; even 

 where it is most difficult to be patient with certain well- 

 known quibbles of the Pyrrhonists he labours seriously 

 to discover the grain of truth amid the heap of chaff. 

 .Almost a hundred pages are given to a discussion of 

 "sensual scepticism," i.e. the scepticism which bases 

 itself upon the contradictory perceptions of the same 

 object experienced by different living creatures, by 

 different human beings, by the same human being 

 at different times, and the like. These arguments, 

 according to this work, have weight only as against 

 extreme realists, and both (extreme) idealism and 

 moderate realism (e.g. the realism of Locke) are re- 

 presented as able to face the situation. With which 

 of the two last named the author's sympathies ulti- 

 mately lie is not apparent from this first instalment ; 

 it will doubtless become evident in the second (and 

 concluding) volume. It is to be hoped for every reason 

 that so excellent a work will soon reach completion. 



THE CHRISTIAN CENTURY IN JAPAN. 

 Geschichte des Christentums in Japan. By Dr. J. 



Haas. Band ii. Pp. xxvii + 383. (Tokio : 1904.) 

 T N this second volume Dr. Haas — whom we con- 

 J- gratulate on the well merited doctorate in theology 

 recently conferred upon him by the University of 

 Strassburg— pursues the history of the Christian 

 missions in Japan from the departure of Xavier in 1549 

 to the year 1570 under the leadership of the Jesuit 

 superior Cosmo de Torres, of Valencia. During that 

 period, and, indeed, almost up to the close of the 

 sixteenth century, the task of conversion lay entirely 

 in the hands of the Jesuits, while the increasing trade 

 with Japan was monopolised by the Portuguese. The 

 sources of Dr. Haas's history are almost wholly 

 European, and above all the famous letters of the Jesuit 

 missionaries from Japan, of which the volume is largely 

 a precis. These authorities are not, however, 

 sufficient, and with the progress of the work it becomes 

 more and more evident that the true history of the 

 Christian century in Japan can only be written in the 

 Peninsula, where, as Father Cros's great book on 

 " St. Frangois de Xavier " tells us, in the inexhaustible 

 archives and libraries of Lisbon and Madrid, and in 

 those of Simancas, Coimbra, Evora, and Ajuda, are to 

 be found the original documents in vast numbers from 

 which alone an adequate account of that most interest- 

 ing chapter in the world's history can be gathered. 



In the score of years covered by the present volume 

 the faith was preached over the whole of Kiushiu and 

 most of Central Japan, the northern and eastern 

 Daimiates and the whole of the great island of Shikoku 



