Page:Philosophical Review Volume 1.djvu/118

102 may be found in that pregnant sentence of Lotze, which (somewhat strangely, in view of the numerous citations from his favorite author) Professor Shoup fails to quote, "The true source of the life of science is to be found in showing how absolutely universal is the extent and at the same time how completely subordinate the significance of the mission which mechanism has to fulfil in the structure of the world."

The author starts with the "cogito, ergo sum" of Descartes, which, he says, was intended "not as an argument, but as an incontestable postulate" (p. 8), and concludes with the position that "the empirical philosophy, which assumes to guide the spirit of the age, is so busy with the natural that it fails to see the spiritual. Its curious gaze is so bent upon the mere mechanism that it fails to feel the touch of the Infinite Personality" (p. 340). Between these limits he travels over the familiar ground of elementary psychology and logic in addition to metaphysics, and even introduces chapters on aesthetics and ethics. Occasionally in his pages one meets with sweeping assertions that are somewhat surprising, e.g. "All philosophers are agreed that there is an important difference between conduct which we call prudent, agreeable, or sagacious, and conduct which is morally good" (p. 239); and again, "It is confessed on all hands that the theory of Subjective Idealism, though it may not be true, is impossible of successful refutation" (p. 302). But such passages are not numerous. As might be expected from a professor of physics, the chapters on scientific topics are by far the best. That on the theories of the ultimate constitution of matter (xxiv) and that entitled "Mathematics not ultimately exact" (xxv) are excellent presentations in popular language of difficult scientific theories or abtruse arguments. Even better, perhaps, are the chapters on the Psycho-Mechanisms and the Senses (iii-vii, pp. 18-68). They form the briefest and most elementary presentation of the main results of physiological psychology with which I am acquainted.

A vigorous protest must be made against the carelessness shown by Professor Shoup in his quotations, and he is fond of quoting. Scarcely one of the dozen or more that I have compared with the original has been accurately transcribed, and the errors are sometimes inexcusably numerous, e.g. p. 14, where in the course of a quotation from the Leviathan, half a page in length, there are no fewer than ten variations from the language of Hobbes. It is somewhat unfortunate, also, that the exact character of the book is not more clearly indicated by its title. For, notwithstanding the faults indicated, it is perhaps the best elementary introduction to philosophy in the language. It is hardly suitable for use in the class-room, but could not fail to prove intelligible, stimulating, and suggestive to any college student of average intelligence that should read it.

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