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 NEW BOOKS. 305 Discussion! gnoseologiche e Note critiche di FRANCESCO BONATELLT, Socio corr. del R. Istituto Ven. di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti. Venezia : G. Antonelli, 1885. Pp. 197. This is a series of hostile criticisms of the doctrine of " the relativity of consciousness" from Protagoras onwards, with special reference to Mr. Herbert Spencer. In opposition to Mr. Spencer's doctrine of relativity the author finally quotes the following sentence from First Principles : " An ever present sense of real existence is the very basis of our intelligence ". These words, he says, repeat in a somewhat different form the doctrine of Eosmini that " the idea of being ever present is what constitutes intelli- gence ". He leaves it to others to determine how this " higher conception of intelligence " can be reconciled with the doctrine of relativity. Die Psychologic Mendelssohn's aus den Quellen dargestellt und kritisch be- leuchtet. Von Dr. LEOPOLD GOLDHAMMER. Wien : Ch. D. Lippe, 1886. Pp. 76. This is an exposition followed by a criticism of the psychology of Moses Mendelssohn, whom the author regards as having been, by his mediation between the Leibnizo-Wolman and the English philosophy, a predecessor of Kant. He takes occasion to point out the importance of Mendelssohn as a writer, as a representative of the " Aufklarungsphilo- sophie," and as an aesthetic critic. Grundlagen zu einer EthiL Von Dr. RICHARD VON SCHUBERT-SOLDERN, Privatdocenten der Universitat Leipzig. Leipzig : Fues (R. Reis- land), 1887. Pp. 168. After criticising (1) the Kantian ethical principle of " internal autho- rity," which is found to be unfruitful because merely formal, (2) the principle of " external authority," which is found not to be an ultimate principle, (3) the doctrine that " insight " is the characteristic of moral action, which is found to presuppose an end not given in mere insight by itself (Introduction, pp. 1-26), the author proceeds to work out some of the preliminaries to an ethical doctrine of his own (pp. 27-168). The result of the whole is that there can be no " absolute " but only a " rela- tive " ethics. Ethical rules bind only those who have an interest in the end to which they point out the means ; that is, they depend for their binding force on some pleasure. This pleasure need not be egoistic, but may be the satisfaction felt in the pleasure or welfare of others. " All actions that have their spring in the general welfare, in the general love of humanity, are called, pre-eminently, moral actions." Altruistic pre- suppose egoistic pleasures. Society rests on a mixture of egoism and altruism ; and since each factor for itself would demand the same social order, it is impossible to say how much each has contributed to the actual result. Altruism will constantly increase, but it is doubtful whether it will ever entirely conquer egoism. Die Philosophie des Heraklit von Ephesus im Lichte der Mysterienidee. Nebst einem Anhang liber heraklitischeEinniisseimalttestamentlichen Kohelet und besonders ini Buche der Weisheit, sowie in der ersten christlichen Literatur. Von Dr. EDMUND PFLEIDERER, Prof, der Philosophie in Tiibingen. Berlin : G. Reimer, 1886. Pp. ix., 384. The author's main thesis is that Heraclitus received the philosophic impulse not from previous philosophy but from religious ideas. In his general view and method, as he points out, he follows Teichmiiller, but differs from him in holding that it was principally the native Greek 20