Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/434

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418 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

to human experience. He has made it easier for people who cannot believe that a socialist may have had, on other subjects, thoughts worth considering, to reflect in a judicial temper upon Marx's historical philosophy. He has shown that the theory is not necessarily fatalistic. He has strengthened the prima facie case for the theory by his frank exhibit of considerations against it. He has left the argument where it would be extremely difficult to maintain dissent from his conclusion. Professor Seligman does not attempt to reduce all stimuli of human action to terms of the physical environment, but he shows that this environment always furnishes primary conditions among which other stimuli must operate. The essay is almost a model of clear, dignified, thorough, and temperate historical and philosophical discussion.

A. W. S.