hopelessly out of date as those who failed similarly with Kant." That sounds like another perfect Nietzscheite, but it is far from it, as I hope this review has indicated.
Wilbur M. Urban.
Trinity College, Hartford.
A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy. By Isaac Husik. New York, The Macmillan Company, 1916.—pp. 1, 462.
The measure of influence exercised by Greek philosophy on mediæval thought may be estimated from different points of view. It furnished apologetics with a powerful weapon of defense. With its aid church, synagogue, and mosque were able to demonstrate the rationality of that special revelation they claimed to have received, and the superiority of each system over its rivals could be proved on the ground of greater harmony with reason. But it also gave an impulse to independent speculation which carried some of the bolder thinkers to positions far in advance of those reached in the recognized canons. There was a distinct progress of thought as well as intellectual training. That a danger lurked in thus measuring the contents of revelation by rational standards of pagan origin was keenly felt by many Moslems, Jews, and Christians. Such, however, was the assistance rendered by the new ally in the defense of the faith that it could not be dispensed with, and the power swayed by men like Averroës, Maimonides, and Thomas Aquinas over the intellectual life of the middle ages marks the extent of the victory won by Aristotle. The ephemeral value of scholasticism to the apologetic interest has too much overshadowed its more permanent services to the emancipation of the human mind. Moslem philosophy has likewise been too exclusively looked upon as a mere channel through which Greek thought found its way to fertilize the fields of dogma. In spite of much pains- taking research and many illuminating discussions, its intrinsic worth has not been fully appraised, and its relation to Aramaic thought expressed in translations and commentaries is yet obscure. Judaism was deeply impressed by the currents of thought in the Moslem world. Here also there were notable gains beside those harvested by apologetics, and the question of the native increment possesses a fascinating interest.
Professor Husik has written a history of Jewish thought in the middle ages upon the ultimate problems of life. He is admirably equipped for this task, and the work is a valuable contribution to the history of philosophy. Ample erudition, critical ability, and a rare capacity
