Page:Philosophical Review Volume 3.djvu/247

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231
SUMMARIES OF ARTICLES.
[Vol. III.
La logique sociale du sentiment. G. Tarde. Rev. Ph., XVIII, 12, pp. 561-594.

The political economist does not take account of the feelings of the heart, but these, nevertheless, play a most important role in human life. The heart of society is like a piano which from time to time gets out of tune, and requires the religious or social reformer to set it right again. The ideal of Benthamism, to increase the sum of pleasures and to diminish that of pains, neglects the qualitative differences of pleasures and pains, which are quite capable of outweighing quantitative differences. The true end of conduct is to increase the sum of kindly feelings and to diminish that of malicious feelings. Now even in the barbarian and savage epochs, where the social group consisted merely of a clan or a horde, the mutual relations of the members of the group were as cordial and fraternal as their relations to strangers were cruel and ferocious. As the social unit became larger and larger, the corresponding social system of feelings became at once extended, complicated, and consolidated. The goal of human development seems to be a maximum of love and a minimum of hatred. This general view is explained at length by the author and illustrated with constant references to well-known historical facts.

E.A.

METAPHYSICAL AND EPISTEMOLOGICAL.

Zur Frage über die Freiheit des Willens (Erster Artikel). N. Swereff. V. f. w. Ph., XVII, 4, pp. 476-489.

The chief difficulty arises from the improper formulation of the question. Habitually, the Free Will is described as exempt from the law of Causality, and so inner Freedom is defined through opposition to Necessity. It is not made clear what this opposition is. If Necessity, understood in the sense of conformity to Law, is Unfreedom, Freedom must be anarchy. But nothing real corresponds to this condition. It is clear no one ever so understood the Freedom of the Will. Its warmest defenders would disclaim such freedom. The error lies in the opposition of Freedom and Necessity. They are incommensurable. The concept of Freedom arises on the ground of inner experience and serves as definition for psychical condition. The concept of Necessity is a means of measuring the temporal relations of external phenomena. Both concepts charac-