626 NEW BOOKS. La Vie des SocieWs. Par le Dr. A. BORDIER, Professeur a 1'Scole d'An- tliropologie de Paris : C. Reinwald, 1887. Pp. xv., 359. The author's aim is to study " the natural history of societies," in the manner in which the growth of a plant or animal is studied. The "physio- logical laws of the social organism " are to be deduced from the appropriate " documents " ; the individual being " considered as a simple anatomical element of the social body and studied successively in the modifications which the number of the similar elements, their structure, their nutrition, their reproduction, their riches or their poverty may cause that organism to undergo". The social organism is then to be studied in its evolution and in the various diseases to which it is subject. Lastly, the right methods of "social hygiene" or legislation and education are to be deduced. The "documents" which the author makes his basis are the results obtained by anthropologists and statisticians. These are set forth and discussed in accordance with his biological terminology. By the term "hygiene," he intends to signify the substitution of methods involving as little interference as possible with individual freedom, for the more violent methods of social " therapeutics ". This he regards as a reform in politics and education corresponding to the modern reform in medical treatment. The philosophical writers by whom he has been most influenced are Buckle and Mr. H. Spencer. Opere Filosofiche di ROBERTO ARDIGO. IV. Sociolgia. II Compito della, Filosofia e la, sua Perennitd. II Fatto Psicologico della Percezione. Pa- do va : A. Draglri, 1886. Pp. 502. The first three volumes of Prof. Ardig6's collected works were noticed in MIND xi. 291. Of the present volume the largest and most important work is the Sociology (pp. 11-252). It may be regarded as a continuation of the Ethics of vol. iii. Ethics, in the author's view, is a branch of the science called by Aristotle " Politics," and now called " Sociology" (p. 51). If a distinction between Politics and Sociology be maintained, Prof. Ardig6's work is rather political than sociological ; his theory of " the natural formation of justice " being developed not simply with the purpose of historical explanation, but with a view to the construction of a doctrine of political rights and duties. For the explanation of " the natural forma- tion of justice," the general principle laid down is, "No justice without human society " (p. 96). The idea of justice is formed from the experience of a conflict of powers. It becomes determinate in the form of legal duties and rights when the separate powers are brought into equilibrium by a central governing power. To make the formation of such a power conceiv- able, we must suppose in individuals an impulse, at first indeterminate,, towards a social ideal. This " individual consciousness of social ideality " is in its nature " anti-egoistic ". When a system of legal rights and duties has been formed by the action of the central power, there appears a con- flict between legal right and what is called " natural right ". The con- sciousness of " natural rights " is a consciousness of " social idealities " not yet embodied in positive law. It is this, and not the . rebellion of egoistic impulses, that is the motive force of revolutions. Ultimately "positive law " is determined and justified by " natural law," or the law of the ideal state. " Anti-egoistic social ideality," when it has become distinct, is rein- forced by the motives that at first gave its strength to egoism. The idea of moral justice, as it grows, is transferred from the act to the intention. The conception of acts of" charity," " beneficence "or " philanthropy," winch go beyond what is strictly due, is formed. In the case of acts of strict justice,, also, the consciousness of the " sanction," that^ is, of the force exerted by society to compel the observance of what is just, tends to disappear.
