124 NEW BOOKS. The result is no serial exposition of Schopenhauerism, but a number of practically independent dissertations on various aspects of that doctrine its metaphysic, epistemology, etc., in which the author, having saturated himself with the doctrine, freely reproduces its essence, and, in a judi- cious, disinterested spirit, repeatedly and variously elaborates the central idea that Schopenhauer failed to see the fine constructive philosophy latent in the implications of his theory of will. C. A. F. RHYS DAVIDS. The Principles of Sociology. An Analysis of the Phenomena of Associa- tion and of Social Organisation. By FRANKLIN HENRY GIDDINGS, M. A., Professor of Sociology in Columbia University in the City of New York. New York and London : Macmillan & Co., 1896. Pp. 476. The writer of this volume believes that the time has not yet arrived for the production of an exhaustive treatise on Sociology. Still he considers that Sociology possesses certain principles, and that the time has come for combining these principles into a coherent theory. He is an op- ponent of those who have translated sociological laws into biological phraseology. According to his view Sociology is a psychological science, and his work chietly draws attention to the psychic aspects of social pheno- mena. His explanation of the origin of social organisation is that it arises from a state of consciousness in which any being whether low or high in the scale of life recognises another conscious being as of like kind with itself. " The consciousness of kind marks off the animate from the inanimate. Within the wide class of the animate it marks off species and races ; within the race it marks off ethnical and political groups and social classes. It is therefore the psychological ground of social groupings and distinctions. The consciousness of kind again continually moves men to act as they would not if they were governed altogether by con- siderations of utility, fear, loyalty, or reverence. It continually prevents the theoretically perfect working of economic, legal, political and religious motives. It is therefore the cause of the distinctively social phenomena of communities." As a longer notice will follow we shall not at present discuss in detail Mr. Giddings's theory of the part played by the " con- sciousness of kind " in the organisation of social life. It is unquestion- ably a most important factor. But perhaps Mr. Giddings does not allow quite enough to other factors, in determining the structure and develop- ment of society. The economic factor acts as powerfully on social organisation as the consciousness of kind. Many of Mr. Giddings's ideas have already appeared in various periodicals, but they are well worth reading in a connected form and as an organic whole. The Biological Problem of To-Day. Preformation or Epigenesis ? The Basis of a Theory of Organic Development. By Professor Dr. OSCAE HERTWIG. Authorised Translation by P. C. MITCHELL, M.A., with an Introduction by the Translator and a Glossary of the Technical Terms. London : W. Heinemann, 1896. Pp. 140. This book contains a very clear and convincing criticism of Weismann's Preformation Theory of embryonic development and an excellent ex- position of the author's own doctrine of Epigenesis. The translation reads extremely well. We can strongly commend the work to the reader who is interested in biological problems from a philosophical point of view.
