Page:Philosophical Review Volume 9.djvu/468

452 this education of the feelings is the author's ulterior aim. Both in its theoretical and practical aspects the book possesses considerable merit, and it can be cordially recommended. It is well planned, well written, and the general tone is admirable.

This volume is a collection of essays which deal in a more or less popular way with the general doctrine of evolution, the factors of organic evolution, the physical basis of heredity, and the application of the evolutionary point of view to questions which lie beyond the sphere of natural science. The supplementary essays are three in number: Professor Conklin contributes a paper on "The Factors of Evolution from the Standpoint of Embryology"; Professor McFarland is responsible for the chapter on "The Physical Basis of Heredity"; Professor Smith discusses "The Testimony from Paleontology." There is necessarily some repetition, and a certain lack of system in a compilation of this kind, but the volume as a whole will prove a useful handbook to the general reader. To the student of philosophy the most interesting feature of the book will be the general point of view which President Jordan develops in the final chapters. The author's attitude to philosophical questions seems to be determined largely by his faith in the struggle for existence. Knowledge is simply a survival advantage. It is essentially practical, its raison d'être is its ability to guide action aright so that the agent may escape destruction. The criterion of truth is defined in accordance with this conception of cognition. "The final test of truth is this: Can we make it work? Can we trust our lives to it?" That our ordinary sensations and our inductions from them are truthful so far as they go, is proved by the fact that we have safely trusted them. The conclusions of philosophy cannot stand this test. "In so far as they do, they are conclusions of science. As science advances in any field, philosophy is driven out of it." The reason is that science follows the facts, stops where the facts stop, and is guided by experiment, while philosophy seeks ultimate knowledge and is governed by the logical demand for continuity, and by the emotional demand for a conception which will satisfy the human 'heart.'

The professed purpose of this book is to make the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche more accessible to Frenchmen, and the extracts chosen for