most important part of his work, and it is for this reason that M. Lévy-Bruhl devotes attention to it exclusively.
The author's main object has evidently been to give a detailed exposition of the positive philosophy, and in this he has succeeded admirably. The work is a clear, systematic, and sympathetic account of the Comtean point of view. It treats first of Comte's conception of the philosophic problem, the law of the three stages, the classification of the sciences, the positivistic view of science and of scientific method. After this introduction there follows a detailed account of Comte's treatment of the various sciences from mathematics up to sociology. The concluding chapter contains an estimate of Comte's significance in the history of the development of human thought.
According to M. Lévy-Bruhl, Comte's originality is to be found in the fact that he saw the necessity of reorganizing science and philosophy before proceeding to the reorganization of society, which was his ultimate aim. He perceived that the sociological problem could not be solved until more theoretical problems had been dealt with; for social institutions depend upon ethical customs, and these in turn imply theoretical beliefs. In dealing with this problem of 'intellectual reorganization' Comte found that the positive sciences, while affording real knowledge, did not satisfy the intellectual demand for universality or unity; the theologico-metaphysical systems of thought, on the other hand, possessed the characteristic of universality but not that of reality. Since neither characteristic can be sacrificed, the difficulty was to unite the 'reality' of the positive sciences with the 'universality' of philosophy. Comte came to the conclusion that this could be done only by the transformation of science into philosophy. For this transformation the creation of sociology as a positive science, i.e., the discovery of the fact that human life and society are governed by unalterable laws, was of crucial importance. It not only rendered possible the universalizing of the positive method, it also brought about "the totalization of experience;" for sociology, as the last of the fundamental sciences, presupposes and sums up all the others. According to M. Lévy-Bruhl, this transformation of science into philosophy, this "Copernican revolution," constitutes Comte's chief claim to a place in the history of thought. His sociological hypotheses have suffered the fate of all scientific theories, but the speculative basis of his work is of permanent value and shows its influence even in those who oppose it.
David Irons.
This book will be found of service to beginners in philosophy for whom an imprimi permittitur is essential. As the title indicates, it covers in brief outline nearly all the strictly philosophical disciplines. It does this
