Page:Philosophical Review Volume 27.djvu/671

No. 6.] and the individual apart, as Professor Adler's own system abundantly proves. And if I understand the spirit of his philosophy aright, he conceives only that uniqueness as worthwhile, as worthy to be contained and continued in an eternal divine life, which is the expression of what is best in man, the will to realize the eternal, universal, values. This is the view of the ethical idealists from Plato to Bosanquet, of whom Professor Adler is the spiritual brother.

An Ethical Philosophy of Life is a noble contribution to the field of ethics, noble in substance and noble in its literary form. The practical part of the work, which does not follow the beaten track, is of unusual interest and value, particularly the chapters dealing with the Vocations, the State, and the National Character; the brief discussion of educational questions (pp. 291-304) is admirable in its thoughtfulness and suggestiveness. The conception of the university as a group of vocational schools may be accepted if we conceive the vocations ethically, as Professor Adler does, if we regard as its aim "to furnish leaders for all the various groups who will undertake the great business of truly organizing democracy," and if we include in this latter task leadership in research. The college Professor Adler looks upon as "a legacy which has come to us from a type of society unlike our own," as "an institution designed for the education of gentlemen," and he thinks it will disappear. We must admit that there is some ground for this pessimistic description, but does it not suggest the reform rather than the elimination of the college? There would seem to be a particular need of the college, as the basis for vocational instruction, in our author's ideal democratic society, but it would have to be something more than a mere pathway to materialistic success or a resort for the acquisition of a superficial culture.

sc}}

This book is a continuation and further development of a line of thought initiated by the author in a work published in 1913 under the suggestive title The Fitness of the Environment. The relation of the volume before us to the earlier book may perhaps be best indicated by quoting some sentences from the introductory chapter. "In a recent book," he writes, " I have tried to recall attention to the many interesting peculiarities of the environment and to state the facts