The Philosophical Review/Volume 1/Review: Shoup - Mechanism and Personality
This book aims to set forth the present attitude of philosophy in a way suited to the comprehension of the ordinary reader. For this difficult task the author has several important qualifications. He has read widely and has a considerable power of clear exposition. He is abreast of the scientific thought of the day especially in his own department of physics, and yet believes that science has not taken and cannot take the place of metaphysics. And, best of all, he firmly believes in his conclusions and writes with vigor, because he is so sure of his ground. Whether those who have worked over his field for themselves agree with his results or not, they will hardly deny that it is best for the beginner in philosophy to be brought face to face with some coherent system of thought. First of all, let him assimilate this, and only when he has gained a complete and sympathetic mastery of some one system will he "be entitled to criticise and compare and dissent, until gradually is own belief on the vital problems shall be evoked from the disintegrating fragments of the system he has learned. And it will be admitted by many that, in choosing a system into which the beginner shall be inducted, none better in its temper and general results is to be found than the one for which our author vigorously fights, "that of Lotze, or perhaps better, the Lotzian phase of Kant." The key-note of the book may be found in that pregnant sentence of Lotze, which (somewhat strangely, in view of the numerous citations from his favorite author) Professor Shoup fails to quote, "The true source of the life of science is to be found in showing how absolutely universal is the extent and at the same time how completely subordinate the significance of the mission which mechanism has to fulfil in the structure of the world."
The author starts with the "cogito, ergo sum" of Descartes, which, he says, was intended "not as an argument, but as an incontestable postulate" (p. 8), and concludes with the position that "the empirical philosophy, which assumes to guide the spirit of the age, is so busy with the natural that it fails to see the spiritual. Its curious gaze is so bent upon the mere mechanism that it fails to feel the touch of the Infinite Personality" (p. 340). Between these limits he travels over the familiar ground of elementary psychology and logic in addition to metaphysics, and even introduces chapters on aesthetics and ethics. Occasionally in his pages one meets with sweeping assertions that are somewhat surprising, e.g. "All philosophers are agreed that there is an important difference between conduct which we call prudent, agreeable, or sagacious, and conduct which is morally good" (p. 239); and again, "It is confessed on all hands that the theory of Subjective Idealism, though it may not be true, is impossible of successful refutation" (p. 302). But such passages are not numerous. As might be expected from a professor of physics, the chapters on scientific topics are by far the best. That on the theories of the ultimate constitution of matter (xxiv) and that entitled "Mathematics not ultimately exact" (xxv) are excellent presentations in popular language of difficult scientific theories or abtruse arguments. Even better, perhaps, are the chapters on the Psycho-Mechanisms and the Senses (iii-vii, pp. 18-68). They form the briefest and most elementary presentation of the main results of physiological psychology with which I am acquainted.
A vigorous protest must be made against the carelessness shown by Professor Shoup in his quotations, and he is fond of quoting. Scarcely one of the dozen or more that I have compared with the original has been accurately transcribed, and the errors are sometimes inexcusably numerous, e.g. p. 14, where in the course of a quotation from the Leviathan, half a page in length, there are no fewer than ten variations from the language of Hobbes. It is somewhat unfortunate, also, that the exact character of the book is not more clearly indicated by its title. For, notwithstanding the faults indicated, it is perhaps the best elementary introduction to philosophy in the language. It is hardly suitable for use in the class-room, but could not fail to prove intelligible, stimulating, and suggestive to any college student of average intelligence that should read it.
W. F. Willcox.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1964, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 59 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse