Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/151

 NOTES AND ABSTRACTS

Determinism and Morals. — Determinism asserts that every volition is determined by causes. Free will denies that this is necessarily true of every volition. But if the principal of causality is doubted, morals collapse, since estimates of right and wrong must presuppose that our actions can have effects. Of possible choices in a given case, only those actions which are physically possible and which we think of can be chosen. Determinism claims that our will to choose this or that alternative is the effect of antecedents. The fact that we judge one course objectively right may be the cause of our choosing that course, hence moral deliberation is of value.

Without the principle of causality, almost all actions would be irrational, and we would be estopped from attempting to influence the volitions of others. So, too, a decision based on belief in one's duty is caused by this sense of duty. — Bertrand Russell, Hibbert Journal, October, 1908. A. E. R.

The Woman Movement in England. — Woman's Suffrage has its roots in centuries of history, is sustained by a volume of opinion, has already enormous rights which it is intended to safeguard, and has commanded the attention of the Imperial Government and the world by its militant, devoted methods. From 1832 to 1867 women were deprived of the right of suffrage which has been theirs. In 1888 a court decision deprived them of the right to seats on the London County Council. In 1894 an act of Parliament discriminated against women acting as Justices of the Peace. In 1907 they were empowered to sit on Borough and County Councils, if qualified. Out of the present 670 members of the House of Commons, 420 were pledged to Woman's Suffrage at the beginning. The Cabinet, excepting the Prime Minister, opposed it, but the suffragist demonstrations have forced it to yield and a bill is to be introduced. The women want to vote, and believe in the power of politics to raise their status, to ameliorate distress, industrial and social, and to open large fields of social service. — C. D. Aked, North American Review, November, 1908. A. E. R.

The Problem of Decadence. — Is decadence a feature of the social group as senescence is of the individual organism? If so, is decadence a characteristic of the race which is biological ; of the nation, which is psychological ; or of the state, which is ethical and political?

As to race decadence, positive evidence does not show that any extinct races have become so because of a drying-up of their vitality, neither does analogy of the senescence of the individual apply, for in the individual there is nothing to compare to the intermixture of strains which characterizes the development of races. Concerning national decadence, we find the analogy with individual senescence is vague. Such examples as the Jews show that change of environment may be met successfully. Nor could the decadence of a nation be other than a serious loss to mankind as a whole. Nor is it possible to determine accurately the period at which a nation is born or grows old. For the state, wise guidance of its changing tendencies may make it stronger, nobler, more self-reliant, and in fact the ruin of new states is more common than of old ones. — W. R. Sorley, The Sociological Review, October, 1908.

A. E. R.

The Progress of Education in China. — ^Ten years ago a revival of learn- ing was strongly advocated by Chang Chih Tung in a book which was widely circulated in China. He foresaw that western learning would not be an un- mixed blessing, for he felt that the practical education of the west would tend to undermine the moral education of China. He urged also a revival of pure

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