Page:Philosophical Review Volume 14.djvu/119

103 In conclusion Professor Class asserts that the meaning of earthly nature,—the world of material existence,—and its relation to spirit are beyond our present comprehension, but that in the light of the threefold argument from pure thought, the idea of duty, and the deeds of historical personalities we are entitled to assume the supremacy of spirit as the highest reality.

Professor Class's little book breathes a noble ethical spirit and he has an exalted conception of the function of philosophy. There are no words wasted, and his solid pages show everywhere the "reine Freude an der Forschung" of which he speaks.

This introduction to the History of Modern Philosophy, by Mr. Arthur Stone Dewing, seems to have arisen from a happy conception. It meets the demands of those who hold that a preliminary knowledge of the problems forms the proper introduction to the study of philosophy, while at the same time it accords with the belief of others who maintain that a study of the history of philosophy itself serves as the only possible approach to the subject. The purpose of the book carries with it the limitations which the author avows and explains. The work "is not the expression of a critical or reconstructive attitude; it makes no attempt to trace the logico-genetic development of modern thought, nor does it pretend to consider every aspect of historical development" (p. 5). To keep the non-technical reader from being repelled by too vast an array of minute details, and also from being complacently satisfied with the superficiality of merely broad characterization, is a delicate task, but it would seem Mr. Dewing has met the difficulty with unusual success. The expositions of the various systems and tendencies of modern philosophy are clear, and the transitions and interrelations are briefly but distinctly brought out. "The biographies of the different men have been emphasized with the belief that the facts of a man's life and character are often the clearest approach to the position that he has occcupied in the world " (p. 6). Whatever may be said about the soundness of the belief, the result certainly enhances the popular attractiveness of the work. The book will be especially useful for the general reader, and it will not lull him into a false sense of security regarding his introductory knowledge of philosophy. Though easy, it cannot be read profitably by the merely passive.

The volume is divided into eight chapters. The first presents a discussion of the meaning, scope, and problems of philosophy, and aims at "an explicit definition of the ordinary conceptions of philosophy." The second chapter, "The Birth of Modern Philosophy," contains the very briefest kind of résumé of Hindoo, Greek, and Mediæval philosophy,—so brief, in fact, that it can be scarcely helpful even "to furnish points of