Bradley's Dialectic. By R. W. Church. (Allen and Unwin. zos.
6d.) PROFESSOR CHURCH'S admirable study of Hume's Theory of the Understanding is well known. Now the undenominational patience, accuracy and fairness which were there devoted to the greatest of British empiricists have been applied, with equal success, to the greatest of British idealists. In less than 200 pages Professor Church finds roon. to state and elucidate with convincing clarity the principles of Bradiey's metaphysics, to convict some of Bradley's recent Cambridge critics' of patent failure to understand what he said and meant, and finally to present some pertinent, and indeed fundamental, criticisms of his own. The book is one for philosophers rather than laymen ; Bradley's eloquent style (so much admired by Mr T S Eliot) tend to conceal the highly technical character of his argument, but Professor Church's plain prose makes it clear that only a reader well grounded in logic and metaphysics can successfully follow its intricacies. Among philosophers, the dwindling band of systematic idealists will appreciate the concise and scholarly handling of familiar material, while empiricists may learn to base their hoitility to Bradley on a correct understanding of his views. Adherents of either school will be reminded that the basic assump- tions of both are incapable of demonstration and may be left to reflect on the suggestion that a philosopher's choice of doctrine is determined, in he last analysis, not by reason but by temperament.
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