works bearing on logic and mathematics have led him to adopt a sociological method which fails by reason of its “simplism,” as it has been called by a French thinker. His fundamental notions of society, state, church government, etc., are too abstract. To-day we want more concrete, more articulated (if I am allowed to use the word in this sense) notions of the State, of its single forces and its organisation; to say the State is the repository of the collective force of the citizens (p. 45) is too abstract a definition.
We can accept many of Mr. Russell’s aims: the promotion of freedom and individual creativeness, the substitution of law for force in the relations of men, the multiplication of voluntary organisations, to name only a few; but it is not only the proposal of noble aims which we expect from a new philosophy of politics, but the critical elucidation of its fundamental notions and an elaboration of a sound method, if we are to steer clear of Utopias.
Happily Mr. Russell is led by strong common sense; while advocating the restriction of the power and activity of the State he avoids the snares of radical anarchism; speaking of property and the economic organisation of modern society he makes some sound remarks—for instance, on economic materialism. He wishes to restrict capitalism, but not to abolish it, and on the whole he favours the co-operative movement and syndicalism.
We also find good passages on education in Mr. Russell’s “Principles”; but his criticism of the existing system of education is better than his positive propositions, which again are too general. Yet his demand for reverence for the child is very happy and suggestive, and his whole scheme of education is based on the conviction that hope, not fear is the creative principle in human affairs.
The chapter on marriage is somehow too one-sided, dealing almost exclusively with the population question; it is noteworthy that he looks for the solution of the problem to “some form of religion.” Religion, indeed, plays a prominent part in Mr. Russell’s scheme of Social Reconstruction; but here again we must express the wish that the chapter on religion and churches had been more positive; just because he assigns to religion the leading rôle in social reconstruction the nature of this religion should have been sketched in a more concrete form. He contents himself with criticisms of ethics and the churches, overlooking the fact that morals and eccle-
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