Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 12.djvu/97

 VII CRITICAL NOTICES. Philosophy, Its Scope and Relations ; an Introductory Course of Lectures. By the late HENRY SIDGWICK, Knightbridge Pro- fessor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Cambridge. London : Macmillan & Co. Limited, 1902. THIS volume forms a welcome supplement to the published works of its lamented author. It serves to define his position in reference to questions of general philosophy which are dealt with only in- cidentally, if at all, in his works on ethics and politics ; and there is an occasional intimacy in the expression of personal opinion in these lectures which one does not meet in the judicially balanced discussions in his other works. It is of important service to con- temporary thought to have its main problems and their proposed solutions submitted to the critical scrutiny of so independent and sincere a thinker. There can have been few men who possessed in so high a degree as Sid g wick the spirit of intellectual fairness which enabled him to appreciate whatever real force belonged to an argument ; and the same scrupulous intellectual conscience made him the most searching critic of the weaknesses and am- biguities lurking in many fashionable theories, whether of the naturalistic or the idealistic order. The volume is based upon courses of lectures delivered at Cam- bridge within the last ten years, and has been judiciously edited by Prof. Ward. The title describes more accurately than is the case with most books the actual contents of the work. The earlier lectures seek to reach a definition of ' the scope of philosophy ' in relation to, and in distinction from, the sciences. The relation of Philosophy to Psychology and the meanings of the terms Meta- physics and Epistemology as compared with the larger term Philosophy are then discussed These five lectures may be con- veniently spoken of as the first part of the book. The second part (Lectures v. to xi.) deals more in detail with the relation of Philosophy to History and Sociology, and is in fact a careful discussion of the value of the historical method and the limits of its application to ultimate philosophical questions. This is probably the part of the volume which will attract most general attention. The last lecture which is somewhat detached from the rest has a title arising out of the definitions of the earlier lectures ' The