about the real conditions of experience yield it, unless adequate recognition be first of all given to the fact that the experience which is the subject-matter of philosophy is not merely a sensuous and thinking, but also a moral, experience."
James Seth.
University of Edinburgh.
This compact and closely reasoned volume is a real contribution to the history of modern philosophy. The author has studied the literature of his subject in an unusually thorough manner, and has worked over the material thus gained in a very independent spirit. The size of the book is no indication of its scope or of the amount of research which it involves. After stating and criticising in detail the philosophy of Descartes, Mr. Smith proceeds to an examination of the Cartesian principles imbedded in the systems of Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, and Berkeley. He then gives Hume's criticism of these principles, and finally contrasts the Cartesian philosophy with the Kantian point of view. Naturally, the results are presented in a very condensed way, and this renders it difficult to give an adequate survey of the ground covered. We shall content ourselves, therefore, with a statement of the general course of the argument.
At the outset an important point is emphasized, namely, the lack of connection between the physics and the metaphysics of Descartes. "In a more adequate manner than even Galileo or Bacon, Descartes formulated the methods and defined the ideals of modern science. His metaphysical teaching, however, is perverted by principles wholly at variance with his own positive scientific views ... and remains in essentials scholastic in conception" (pp. v, vi). Thus, in his metaphysics, he regards motion as a mode of matter, while in his physics he not only conceives the two as distinct in nature and origin, but anticipates modern science by viewing matter as the mere vehicle of motion.
After making this preliminary observation, the author goes on to show that the form which Descartes's philosophy assumed is conditioned by the fact that a new view of the self and of nature had grown up since the time of Aristotle. "The soul, Aristotle teaches, realizes itself in and through the body. The material and the immaterial are two aspects involved in all natural existences and are separable only
