THE BERNIER CRI IN PHILOSOPHY.
Modern Philosophy. By C. E. M. Joad. (Clarendon Press. 2s. 6d. net.) Tins book is a somewhat surprising performance. It repre- sents a new departure in the policy of the Oxford University Press, not only by recognizing philosophy (and that in its most aggressively modem forms 1) as a subject of general interest, but also by catering for the demand for popular manuals on a subject that might well have seemed too abstruse for the popular taste. To give an intelligible exposition and criticism of the philosophies of the various brands of New Realism, of Mr. Bertrand Russell, of Croce and Gentile, of the Pragmatists, and of Bergson, in a little over a hundred pages, is a task which might well appal the boldest. It is remarkable how well Mr. Joad has succeeded. He writes readably, simply and clearly, and though naturally he has to avoid deep waters, he contrives to give quite an interesting bird's-eye view of the philosophic situation. Although his own sympathies lie with Realism, he has tried, not without success, to be fair to the various views he deals with. It is not his fault if, after reading him, the " man in the street " is still found to persist in asking : " Is the world really so queer a thing as philosophers imagine, or are the philosophers all a little cracked ? " For it is one of the drawbacks to what the French aptly call works of " vulgarization " that they tend to make the darker mysteries of the deeper doctrines appear in a somewhat sorry light. At any rate, Mr. Joad has tried not to draw caricatures, even of pragmatism, which is used to much misrepresentation. This is not to say that he gets it right ; for he has not been' able to purge his mind of the beliefs that whatever is real must be (and remain !) what it is, prior to, and irrespective of, any 'cognitive experiment performed upon it, while any suggestion to the contrary must mean the assertion of a " featureless flux,". and... any selective act which discriminates what is actually observed from what passes unobserved must be declared to " alter the fact perceived " (p. 78). A " realist " it would seem has almost insuperable difficulty in conceiving that the real need not .be fixed from all eternity, and may really respond to the various operations tried upon it, while its nature is to be apprehended, not by metaphysical definitions, but by scientific experiments., Finally the very adequate reason should be noted which is given by Mr. Joad for omitting English Idealism from his survey, viz., that he has restricted himself to views, both important and distinctively modem, which have arisen since the publication of Mr. Bradley's Appearance and Reality, that is in the last thirty years.
F. C. S. SCHILLER.
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