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416 NEW BOOKS. the five kinds of particles, of natural bodies, of animal principles, of senses, of faculties, of elements in the sensation, etc., to the number of twenty or more. The relationships between series and series are established by an undefined 'development,' by "affinity as choice," ' organisation,' etc. The work is dedicated to Prof. L. F. Ward, to whose elaborate account of its contents in Science (27th January, 1899) reference may here be made. Footnotes to Evolution : a Series of Popular Addresses on the Evolution of Life. By D. S. JORDAN, E. G. CONKLIN, F. M. MCFARLAND and . J. P. SMITH. New York : D. Appleton & Co., 1898. Pp. xviii., 392. Six of President Jordan's essays call for brief mention here. Those on the evolution of mind, and on the struggle for realities, set forth the author's views of genetic psychology. Mind is defined as the sum of the operations of the nervous system, or of the similar operations occurring in organisms without specialised nerve fibres or cells. Its basis is irrita- bility : thus the point of growth in plants is the seat of the plant mind. Its type is reflex action ; consciousness is not necessarily implied in it. At a certain stage " arises the necessity for choice as a function of mind". Attention is selection ; suppression of undesired action is accomplished by the will. Nothing is said of the mechanics of this development, though we are warned against positing an ego, an entity apart from organisation. But, surely, the problem of attention is the central problem of a genetic, as of every other psychology ; it is not explained by a mere mention of the ' necessity ' for its origination. The papers on degeneration, on hereditary insufficiency, and on the woman of evolution and the woman of pessimism, discuss sociological topics ; that on the stability of truth meets the arguments of the Marquis of Salisbury, Mr. Balfour, and Prof. Haeckel. The remaining nine addresses are concerned with biological matters. The Problems of Philosophy : An Introduction to the Study of Philo- sophy. By J. G. HIBBEN. New York : Chas. Scribner's Sons, 1898. Pp. vi., 203. Prof. Hibben aims, in this little book, to " give a simple statement of the various schools of philosophy, with the salient features of their teachings, and to indicate the chief points at issue in reference to contro- verted questions : ... to furnish the student who is beginning the study of philosophy a bird's-eye view of the general philosophical territory ". After a brief plea for the study of philosophy at large, and an enumera- tion of the chief philosophical problems, come eight special chapters, dealing with Being (ontology), the world (cosmology), the mind (psy- chology), knowledge (epistemology), reason (logic), conscience (ethics), political obligation (political science), and the sense of beauty (aesthetics), respectively. The author has written shortly, simply, and in an attractive literary style. His work will prove of high value to the amateur of philosophy the ' educated ' reader and to the undergraduate who finds himself upon the threshold of a philosophical curriculum. In a future edition it would be well to supply a few selected references for further reading, and to rearrange the chapters in such a way as to bring out the inter- relation of the various philosophical disciplines.