Ernest Haeckle has said that there is nothing constant but change. He might have said also that there is a no more consistent thing in its constancy than human inconsistency. And Herbert Spencer rightfully said that, as he grew older, the more and more he realized the extent to which mankind is governed by irrationality. Billings was probably right when he said, “It is not so much the ignorance of men that makes them ridiculous as what they know that is not so.”
German Philosophy and Politics. By John Dewey, Professor of Philosophy in Columbia University. New York, 1915. Henry Holt & Co. Price, $1.25 net, pp. 134.
Dr. John Dewey, one of the world’s greatest philosophers, here gives the unprofessional philosopher a succinct notion of the development of classic German philosophy from Kant to Hegel. All technical details are omitted. Professor Dewey gives some interesting side-lights on German war philosophy, and shows how German thought took shape in the struggle for German nationality against the Napoleonic menace, and how profoundly that crisis affected the philosophy of morals, of the state, and of history which has since that time penetrated into the common consciousness of Germany.
Doctor Dewey thinks that cavalry generals who employ philosophy to bring home practical lessons are mighty rare outside of Germany. More significant than the words themselves are their occasion and the occupation of the one who utters them. Outside of Germany it would be indeed hard to find an audience where an appeal for military preparedness would be reinforced by allusions to the Critique of Pure Reason. By taking the statements as given by the German philosophers one can understand the temper in which opinion in Germany meets a national crisis. When the philosopher Eucken, who received the Nobel prize for contributing to the idealistic literature of the world, justifies the part taken by Germany in a world war because the Germans alone do not represent a particularistic and nationalistic spirit, but embody the “universalism” of humanity itself, he utters a conviction bred in German thought by the ruling interpretation of German philosophic idealism. By the side of this motif the glorification of war as a biologic necessity, forced by increase of population, is a secondary detail giving a totally false impression when isolated from its context. Philosophical justification of war follows inevitably from a philosophy of history composed in nationalistic terms. The author says that history is the movement, the march of God on earth through time. Only one nation at a time can be last and hence the fullest realization of God.
The War and America. By Hugo Münsterberg. D. Appleton & Co., New York and London. 1915. $1.00 net, pp. 210.
The Peace and America. By Prof. Hugo Münsterberg. D. Appleton & Co., New York and London. 1915. Price $1.00 net, pp. 280.
These two illuminating books written by Professor Münsterberg of Harvard University, give a wealth of information regarding the causes of the Great War. He is known as perhaps the greatest psychologist in America to-day. He is, however, well qualified to write on this great subject on account of his intense interest in the outcome of the conflict, and also on account of his great desire for peace between nations.
The War and America discusses the essential factors and issues of the European War and their meaning and import for Americans. All the fighting that has been done through the thousands of years past were nothing but mere skirmishes as compared with the conflict of to-day. The one great lesson for America in the European conflict will show that the loss and waste will be so much larger than the righting of a possible wrong will amount to that it will be utterly impossible to even think of going into a war on a large scale as has been done in the Great War. All concessions could have been granted a half dozen times over by each and every nation involved in the conflict, and yet, the cost would have been but a mere drop in the bucket as compared with what it now amounts to, after one year of hostilities. Professor Münsterberg says: “A gigantic destruction of human life such as this war demands must naturally force on everyone the wish for a substitute which is less painful to the imagination.” Perhaps good will come of the war in that respect. It will be such a lesson to the world that it will be thoroughly awakened to the real danger of the present foolish method of settling international disputes. Professor Münsterberg is a writer of great fame, having written more books on Psychology than any other man, he gives a broad interpretation to that peculiar state of international affairs which have ultimately to reckon with the Peace Movement.
THE INFORMATION DESK
An article by Ellis B. Usher, of the University of Wisconsin, in a current magazine, says the vote of the State is steadily falling off. In the year 1900 the percentage of votes cast to the voting population was a fraction above 74. In 1912 the percentage had fallen to 46½, and in 1914 it was only 43. Professor Usher attributes the steady decrease in the number of votes cast to the disgust of the voters with the primary election laws and other meddlesome legislation. “We have attempted,” he says, “to substitute machinery for citizenship. We have cumbered our statute books with laws, and expected them, unaided and automatically to create citizens faithful to their duties. Instead, this new machinery has proved an annoyance, and a restraint upon the electorate, and has defeated that untrammeled action by the voter that is of the highest essence of citizenship.”