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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXV. No. 



the whole matter? Not in the Niirnberg • 

 Prop'ddeuiik, truly, nor yet in reines Denken 

 as a purely ' subjective ' function ; but Hegel 

 had some other things to say ! " It becomes 

 very clear that one and the same method 

 obtains " in each of the three spheres of being, 

 knowing and doing, " the method of absolute 

 syllogistic. Genera, species and specimens 

 are the only realities in being; genera are 

 realized only in the whole of their species, 

 and species only in the whole of their speci- 

 mens; the relation of genus, species, and 

 specimen is necessarily that of the three terms 

 in the syllogism. * * * Similarly, ideas, con- 

 cepts and percepts are the only realities in 

 knowing; ideas are realized only in concepts, 

 and concepts only in percepts ; the relation of 

 idea, concept and percept is that of the three 

 terms of the syllogism. * * * Lastly, ideals, 

 purposes and deeds are the only realities in 

 doing; ideals are realized only in purposes, and 

 purposes only in deeds; the relation of ideal, 

 purpose and deed is that of the three terms of 

 the syllogism. * * * Through this principle 

 of absolute syllogistic as the law of unit- 

 universals, or apriori of being, or necessary 

 identity of methods in the sphere of reality 

 and ideality alike, philosophy attains its end 

 in syllogistic as the principle of absolute 

 methodology, and in personality as the top- 

 most reach of its application in human knowl- 

 edge " (ii., 285 f.). By how much does this 

 differ from, say, the Becldsphilosophie? And 

 by how much the RecMspMlosophie differs 

 from this, because based on an analysis far 

 more profound than that offered in ' Syllo- 

 gistic ' ! 



For the rest, suffice it to say that students 

 of technical philosophy will find some sug- 

 gestive criticisms in these pages ; for, notwith- 

 standing its author's avowed purpose, the work 

 ranks much stronger in destructive than in 

 constructive material, a circumstance in itself 

 indicative of much. Second, a number of 

 acute interpretations, particularly of Aristotle, 

 Kant and Fichte, are presented, which will 

 raise controversy, and possess the merit of 

 sending the reader to the original sources. 

 Third, Darwin is hailed, not simply as a great 

 Bcientifie man, but as the herald of a new 



philosophy which, in all likelihood, he would 

 have failed to comprehend. Lastly, much is 

 offered which could be worked up into an 

 epistemology or logic with advantage, were it 

 first subjected to fundamental analyses. For 

 example, we read: 



Every logical conclusion from true premises, 

 that is, every concreted syllogism of knowledge, 

 every true judgment, or real cognition, is one of 

 the ultimate cells which syllogistic, as the cell- 

 theory of the organism of universal human knowl- 

 edge, recognizes as the indivisible living com- 

 ponents of all science and all philosophy. The 

 object, we repeat, determines the subject in know- 

 ing. That is, what the object is in itself, even on 

 the idealist's assumption that the subject has cre- 

 ated it, must determine all possible knowledge of 

 it; the relations immanent in it must determine 

 all relations immanent in the cognition of it, since 

 any variation in these at once vitiates the cogni- 

 tion so far {II., 247 f.). 



Elements are presented here which idealism 

 has not been too prone to emphasize ; but they 

 stand in sore need of the regress of criticism. 



Dr. Abbot's intense seriousness and total 

 lack of humor, added to his exasperating 

 repetition of formulae such as the mystic ' My 

 self as one of the we,' and the ' I in the we,' 

 render the work difficult reading; but as a 

 mental gymnastic, the effort to discover the 

 author's special originality and to justify his 

 treatment of the classics of the past, may be 

 recommended. An admirable index makes 

 reference easy. E. M. Wenley 



University of Michigan 



American Fossil Oycads. G. E. Wieland. 

 The Carnegie Institution of Washington, 

 1906. Pp. viii -f 296. PI. I.-L. 

 The appearance of this handsome quarto 

 volume marks a very important forward step 

 in our knowledge of the Cycadales, while it 

 also throws a great deal of light upon the gen- 

 eral problem of the phylogeny of the gymno- 

 sperms and their supposed relation to filicinean 

 ancestors. It is the result of studies carried 

 out by Dr. Wieland since 1898, when the first 

 field work was undertaken. In the present 

 treatment the author devotes his attention to 

 establishing the obvious boundaries and bot- 

 anical aspects of the cycads, reserving their 



