Introduction to Social Philosophy. By John S. Mackenzie. (MacLehose and
Sons, Glasgow.)—This volume contains the sub- stance of lectures delivered at Edinburgh in 1889, in fulfilment of the conditions of the Shaw Fellowship. We cannot follow Mr. Mackenzie's arguments, which deal, it may be said, with the social side of ethics. The author well remarks that the questions which economical science refers to ethics are thrown back by the latter, and are never dealt with at all. Social philosophy treats of the subjects which lie in the debateable land between the two. There is much dialectical acuteness in Mr. Mackenzie's treatment of the subject; witness his discussion of Hedonism (pp. 202-27). At the same time he is distinctly practical, as may be seen by a study of his fifth and sixth chapters, dealing respectively with "The Social Ideal" and "The Elements of Social Progress." The remarks on "Collectivism" may be specially commended to the notice of readers. "Few things are more to be relied on," he writes, "than the popular judgment on actions after they are done ; and consequently Socialism would be a true ideal for beings that lived backwards The average human being is a re- spectable historian, but a miserable prophet."
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