Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 8.djvu/574

560 PHILOSOPHICAL PERIODICALS. in us, and this resistance is constituted by pre-existing tendencies to act in a contrary direction.] Varchide. ' Recherches experimentales : Ob- servations sur le pouls radial pendant les Emotions.' Analyses et comptes rendus. EEVUE DE METAPHYSIQUE ET DE MOEALK. November, 1898. G-. Vailati. ' La Methode deductive comme Instrument de Recherche.' [To Aristotle, the characteristic distinguishing the conclusions of deductive reasoning from those of induction, was that in the former case the conclusion could not be denied without falling into a contradiction or without casting a doubt on the premises, while the results of induction might be re- jected though the data remained unimpeached. His notions of deduction were based solely on its use in geometry and rhetoric. The method was used to guarantee probable assertions by reducing them to others more probable or certain. In modern philosophy, as early as the time of Descartes and Gassendi, we find deduction applied to explain and antici- pate experience, no longer confined to determining the consistency of proposition with proposition. So too, in Galileo's advances in mechanics, this method filled the most important role. Further, there is an im- portant difference of motive as between the ancients and the moderns. The Greeks sought relief from the uneasiness of uncertainty in facing nature, a riddance of the fear of its mysterious powers. With them deduction did not aim at following theories out to that point where experiment might test the validity of alleged laws and determine their limits. Bacon's attack on the syllogism deals rather with the scholastic abuse of deduction than with the true Aristotelian method. Again, when Mill charges the syllogism with the fallacy of a vicious circle, he forgets that to assert the implication of the conclusion in the premises, means only to assume that the fundamental propositions of a science are sufficient to prove its theorems without further appeal to experience. Notwithstanding his criticism of Mill, the author goes on to describe in much the same way as Mill those scientific applications in which the method is most successful, in particular where there is "intermixture of effects". A notable feature in the essay is the wealth of illustration from mechanical science.] Chr. Marechal. ' Un Fragment in^dit de 1' " Esquisse d'une Philosophic " de Lamennais.' [This article contains an instalment of a sketch of social philosophy by Lamennais, the manu- script having been recently discovered at the Bibliotheque Nationale. The main object is to show in the family and in the idea of property, the invariable form in which alone human progress may be developed, to show in property and family the " plastic realisation " of the eternal laws which appertain not only to the Creation but also to the very existence of the Creator. It aims at laying the foundations of a " social religion," a certain number of extremely simple metaphysical and moral principles which render possible a union among human beings.] Maurice Blondel. 'L'lllusion Idealiste.' [The first part of the article criticises the tradi- tional philosophies regarded as phases of a common "intellectualism," the extremes being idealism and realism. It concludes that whichever of the sides we adopt, our problems are insoluble, our assertions are involved in contradictions. The second or constructive part suggests a point of view from which we may hope a greater measure of success, without losing touch with the tendencies of the time or breaking with tradition. Philosophy should hold to what is real, concrete, living : it should attend more to the particular, the individual, the personal : it must recognise the superiority of love and action above theory : it must recognise the irreducible originality of the practical.] In the department headed " Discussions" there are two short articles dealing with the fundamental