Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 9.djvu/435

 NEW HOOKS. |-.>1 .I,/ der HV,,,/, ,!,-.< .l<tli,-lin,tili;-tx. You Dr. 1,1 i. win STKIN. Mohr; London : Williams & Norgate, 1899. Pp. li:.. Dr. Stein is already favourably known in the world of social seiem l, to excellent work on social philosophy published a year or two aco The present volume is not a systematic exposition like its larger m decessor ; it is a series of twenty essays, several of which have already appeared m print in various German periodicals. The only bond whic'h unites them into a sort of consistent whole is that all these essays deal more or less directly with the philosophy of civilisation. In his work on social philosophy Prof. Stein dealt with the social question by the comparative historical method. In the present volume he deals with a number of other problems by examining them in accordance with exactly the same method. Among these problems are the nature and task of sociology, Darwinian and Socialist ethics, the philosophy of peace, the political and social tasks of the twentieth century, religious optimism, natural laws and moral laws. Essays of a somewhat different character are devoted to the subject of Greek philosophy among the Arabs, the last works of Nietzsche and Nietzsche as a philosophical classic. The essays on Greek philosophy among the Arabs arc vrrv well done. The whole book in fact is full of interest, and where Dr. Stein does not succeed in convincing he always awakens thought. Essays dealing with such a variety of subjects and many of them necessarily 'controversial in char- acter cannot be discussed in detail in the space at our command. But we may say of them that they are the work of a man of keen intellect and comprehensive vision who is abreast of all the best knowledge of his age. fii'l I i hen, arbitrio. By C. Biuso. Libri tre. Firenze : G. Barbera, 1900. Pp. 303. Of the ''three books," the first classifies systems of philosophy and theo- logy with respect to the free-will question ; the second criticises them in this connexion ; the third gives the author's view on the problem. To be confronted by yet another book on this subject ardua e infrultuoga, to quote the author is scarcely exhilarating. Its vitality is almost exasperating. And if M. Biuso seems with one hand to bring the dis- cussion within hailing distance of closure, he gives with the other a fresh stimulus to controversy. An adequate historical review and the spread of a grasp of psychological analysis : by means of these agencies further discussion should wither away. The former is given us in books i. and ii., and is both concise and thorough so far as it goes. 1 1 is only regrettable that, at this time of day, the inquiry should still have been limited to Socrates and to Judaism for the philosophical and theo- logical sources of the controversy respectively. The author quotes the dictum that belief in the freedom of the will is impossible without belief in a hypostatic anima xpirituale. But if he had exercised the least curiosity to discover whether his subject ever presented itself in the problems of the other half of the world's older philosophies, he would have been able to include a striking confirmation of his dictum. I refer to the reasons given by the founders of Buddhism for rejecting the theory of an unconditioned psychical substance. Those reasons are now as accessible to readers of English and German as the Dialogues of Plato. The stimulus to further discussion is due to the fact that the author's criticisms lead up to a confession of his Materialistic standpoint. The identification by the Materialist of matter with the real is such 'penal servitude for life ' to most philosophers that the writer's criticisms will