Page:Philosophical Review Volume 25.djvu/494

482 view of the world, there can be no metaphysics without psychology. The ethical ideas of the Philosophy of Loyalty thus owe their shape in large measure to views regarding the self, its purposes and its objects, which first appeared in connection with metaphysical studies; though their sources lie far behind these in an uncommonly broad observation of, and interest in, human experience for its own sake.

Royce's views stand in interesting relation to the ethical results of certain recent developments in psychology. It is the purpose of the present paper to trace this relation. Already the prominence of 'behavior' in recent psychology is governing the statement of ethical and social problems, and so, to a certain extent, their solution. McDougall's Social Psychology may illustrate this. And now from another quarter, the strikingly original psychological work of Sigmund Freud, who has purposely remained as far as possible naïve toward current psychological traditions, is laid under contribution. In Professor E. B. Holt's book, The Freudian Wish, the interest in behavior and the analysis of Freud are brought together; and both are employed, first in the re-stating of ethical questions (which is all that new concepts, strictly speaking, can accomplish), and then in indicating certain methods of solution.

This book is much more than an application of Freud's ideas. It offers a distinctly novel interpretation of the 'wish' in terms of behavior and environment. And it so far generalizes the principles of Freud's psychology, that it amounts to a gallant rescue of that work for ethical purposes both from the one-sided emphases of its friends, and from the distortions of its critics. It is refreshingly fair and clear sighted in recognizing what is significant in this region of easy and voluminous misunderstanding. The ethical application itself is essentially Holt's work. It is true, of course, that the psycho-analyst in his therapy must constantly use assumptions about where moral health as well as mental health lies: to this extent Holt's ideas may be said to