REVIEWS OF RECENT LITERATURE. 
GENERAL BIOLOGY. 
Natural Science and Philosophy. — Borntraeger Brothers? an- 
nounce the programme of a series of chapters in popular knowledge 
by Dr. Adolf Wagner. The series is entitled Studies and Sketches in 
Natural Science and Philosophy, of which Nos. I and II have already 
appeared. The first of the series, Concerning Scientific Thinking and 
Popular Science, stands as a methodological introduction to the whole 
group by its discussion of the attitude of the logical thinker and of 
the process and results of epistemological analysis. After a discrimi- 
nation of empirical investigation from critical reflection, in which 
the ease of the former and the difficulties which lie in the way of 
the latter are pointed out, the author goes on to indicate the nature 
of scientific thinking in general. 
_ Itis not any body of truth, or any form of expression, or any 
method of inquiry, — in so far as method means the employment of 
specific scientific instruments, — it is not the investigation of any 
particular problem or group of problems. Scientific thinking can 
be characterized only as an intellectual attitude, a method applicable 
to all possible subjects of investigation. It is, in short, sincere, crit- 
ical thought, which admits belief only as it is based on evidence. 
Theoretical science, says the author, has attained no higher example 
than the canons of logical thought. It is criticism as opposed to 
dogma. Dogmatism remains dogmatism even when it speaks the 
phrases of science, and science, if it is sincerely to fulfil its office, 
must be kept free from the very taint of dogma. 
This critical attitude of the thinker once made clear, an epistemo- 
logical analysis of the nature of experience is entered upon in a series 
of discussions concerning things and properties, succession and con- 
nection in experience, cause and effect, laws and processes, reality 
and phenomena. The reader is then prepared to take up in detail 
the criticism of experience, of which the first aspect treated is the 
freedom of the will (No. IT). 
1 Wagner, Dr. Ad. Studien und Skizzen aus Naturwissenschaft und Philoso- 
phie. I. Ueber wissenschaftliches Denken und populäre Wissenschaft. II. Zum 
Problem der Willensfreiheit. Borntraeger Bros., Berlin. 
889 
