Volume 2 — THE MONIST. (continued 5)

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ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR PSYCHOLOGIE UND PHYSIOLOGIE DER SINNESORGANE. Vol. II. No. 4.

CONTENTS:

Zur Psychologie der Komplexionen und Relationen. By E. Meinong.

Wundt’s Antikritik. By C. Stumpf.

Ueber die Unterschiedsempfindlichkeit fuer kleine Zeitgroessen. Eine vorläufige Mitteilung. By F. Schumann.

Litteraturbericht.

Professor A. Meinong discusses Ch. v. Ehrenfels’s article “Ueber Gestaltqualitäten”⁠[28] adding the results of his own investigations suggested to him by this essay. Ehrenfels starts from Professor Mach’s consideration of figure and melody (see Mach’s Beiträge zur Analyse der Empfindungen) and proposes the question, What are figure and melody in themselves? Are they merely a combination of elements or are they something in contradistinction to their elements, something entirely new? Melodies and figures, says Ehrenfels, can be so transposed that not any one of their original elements will remain. Thus the similarity of figures in space as well as of tones is something different from the similarity of their elements; they must be something different than their mere sum. This is “the figure-quality” or Gestaltsqualität, and Ehrenfels distinguishes between two kinds, (1) those of time (2) those of space, which he calls (1) Tongestalten and (2) Raumgestalten. In addition to these are discussed the figure-qualities of sensations and of inner apperception. Ehrenfels proposes the psychological question whether these figure-qualities are immediately given together with their foundations or whether they must be considered as the product of a special activity, and he decides in favor of the former possibility. Professor Meinong whose work has been in similar lines, refers to his article “Phantasievorstellung und Phantasie”⁠[29] and criticises the term “figure-quality,” proposing in its stead the words fundierend and fundiert, using the German term Fundament as a correlative expression of “relation.” There is no relation without complexity and psychological experience has actually to deal with complex facts only. Melody and figure are names for the totality of the foundations including their “founded” contents.

It may be that we are unduly prejudiced in favor of our own terminology, but it seems to us that the expression “form” will prove to be the most appropriate word. Form is neither quality nor quantity, but form can produce qualities. Let the same qualities, say of chemical elements, combine in different forms, and we shall obtain substances with different qualities. Figure and melody are special kinds of form. Forms consist in and originate through combination, and the unity produced through a special form-combination is actually something new, as much so as if it were a special-creation act. This wonderful power of form makes the study of form all-important in all branches of science. A neglect of the study of form will lead either to materialism when matter and motion are conceived as the only quality-producing factors, or to agnosticism as soon as a deeper inquiry proves that matter and motion are not sufficient to explain the most essential properties of the objects of investigation. We cannot judge from the present article how much Ehrenfels and Meinong are in sympathy with our standpoint, but we can see that their efforts are in the same direction.

The second article is a rejoinder by Prof. C. Stumpf of Munich to Prof. W. Wundt’s reply to his critic. Professor Stumpf complains of Wundt that he ignored the points raised in his criticism and that his “Antikritik” consisted only of “a chain of distortions and insinuations.”

F. Schumann publishes his results regarding sensibility for the difference between smallest quantities of time. He employed a chronograph modified in two respects from Wundt’s chronograph. First he replaced the expensive chronometer by a treading-wheel and introduced Pfeil’s time-marker, which, as he thinks, is handier as well as more precise than Wundt’s time-marker. Schumann’s results agree with the results of Professor Mach showing a maximum of 0.3-0.4 seconds, the relation of the perceptible difference to the normal time being in different persons only 0.022. (Hamburg and Leipsic: L. Voss.)

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PHILOSOPHISCHES JAHRBUCH. Vol. IV. No. 3.

CONTENTS:

Enthaelt die chemisch-physikalische Atomtheorie Widersprueche? By S. J. Linsmeier.

Noch einmal zu Platon’s Timaeus p. 51 E-p. 52 B. By Clemens Baeumker.

Das Gesetz von der Erhaltung des Lebens. (Zusatz der Redaction.) By W. Frye.

Die Logischen Gaenge des Denkens. By Dr. G. Grupp.

W. Wundt’s System der Philosophie. By C. Gutberlet.

Recensionen und Referate.

The publishers and editors of The Monist are not Roman Catholics and we suppose that the majority of our readers are not either. But all the more it appears to us necessary to state as a matter of justice that the Roman Catholic publications (i. e. those which avowedly and confessedly represent Roman Catholic thought) are far superior to their analogous Protestant contemporaries. The latter are debating their particular sectarianisms and do not seem to be interested in the progress of their times. They do not heed the discoveries of science or the views of philosophers, they live in a world of their own. It is different with Roman Catholics. The present magazine proves that they have thinkers among them who keep abreast of the time. It is true that there is more discipline in the camp of Roman Catholics which shuts their champions out from free enquiry in a certain direction concerning some fundamental tenets, but with all this discipline goes along a broad-mindedness in attacking the different problems of modern science and philosophy and bringing them into harmony with the Roman Catholic faith.

The Philosophisches Jahrbuch is published by the Görres-Gesellschaft and edited by Dr. Const. Gutberlet. Jacob Joseph Görres is the well-known champion of the Catholic Church (1776-1848)—a restless spirit who began his public career as an enthusiastic defender of the French Revolution for the propagation of which he published a fanatical journal Das rothe Blatt. With the rise of Napoleon he despaired of the cause of liberty, but he took courage again in the war of independence (1813-1815). In his journal Der Rheinische Merkur he denounced bitterly those Germans who still held to the French; he recommended his countrymen to have more love for their language, customs, and traditions and exhorted the princes to stand united against the common foe and re-institute the empire. The war over he was persecuted by the Prussian government on account of his renewed interests in revolutionary affairs (he had published in 1820 a pamphlet “Germany and the Revolution”) and showing a decided inclination to mysticism (“Emanuel Schwedenborg, his Visions and his Relation to the Church,” 1827) he joined the Ultramontane party in the conviction that his ideals could be realised in the Roman Catholic Church. The rest of his life he remained faithful to Rome and was the most active, the most vigorous, and also the ablest defender of Roman Catholic views and interests. The present magazine is a Quarterly conducted with scholarship and tact, although as a matter of course not without that prejudice which necessarily results from the principle of giving all thoughts into captivity under a special and foredetermined faith. The last volume (vol. iii) is rich in interesting articles. Prof. Dr. Hayd, strange enough, defends the liberty of investigating the authority of faith, which the editor, however, without rejecting the idea off-hand considers as bold (gewagt). There are articles on the freedom of will, on the infinite number of possibilities, mongolian cosmology, Pascal’s position toward scepticism, analogies between cognition of God and cognition of nature with special reference to Kant’s criticism of the evidences of the existence of God. The present number of vol. iv contains an article on the chemico-physical theory of atoms. The question is proposed whether or not this theory contains contradictions. The author starts from Dalton’s Definition, whom he regards together with Wallaston as the founder of modern atomism. The four weightiest objections are considered, but the author arrives at the conclusion that all of them are based upon misconceptions. He sums up: “Chemists and Physicists do not repudiate eyes and senses when proposing and defending the atomistic theory. On the contrary they use for their view and build it upon an exceedingly richer material of observation than is employed by their antagonists.... This denial of the validity of the most important objections, however, does not imply that the atomistic theory is without difficulties, gaps, unexplained details, etc. It is not as yet so certain a fact as for instance the heliocentric world-conception. It is an hypothesis still and will have to remain such for quite a long time. Yet we can confidently assert that the difficulties are by far less than those offered to the acceptance of the Copernican hypothesis at the time of the first condemnation of Galileo (1616) which were solved afterward by Galileo in the year 1632. We have further to state that the atomistic theory has been developed more and more since Dalton, the number and the importance of the explanations offered in it have constantly increased.”

Dr. Frye of Jena discusses Preyer’s latest view of “The Self-Gubernation of Life—Die Selbststeuerung des Lebens” which appeared in a recent number of the Naturwissenschaftliche Wochenschrift (Berlin). Preyer considers his newly discovered law as a corollary to the conservation of matter and energy and maintains that the total amount of life in the world is as much constant as are matter and energy. Living mass (Mz) plus inanimate mass (Mn) are constant (C); Mz + Mn = C. So far scientists will agree, but Preyer adds that each separate item is constant for itself. He declares that “the total amount of protoplasm in the world remains unchanged in quantity.” It is hardly probable that Preyer’s view will be adopted by science.

Dr. Grupp discusses the logical paths of thought, and the editor, Professor Dr. Gutberlet explains and criticises Wundt’s System of Philosophy.

One of the most valuable features for Catholic readers must be considered the book reviews. Here the thoughts of the most advanced thinkers are as it were digested for the Catholic world. The material is carefully sifted but the exposition of heretic opinions is not evaded. The criticisms from the pen of Dr. Gutberlet are often trenchant and should not be left unheeded by the adversaries of the Church. (Fulda: Verlag der Fuldaer Aktien-Druckerei.)

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RIVISTA ITALIANA DI FILOSOFIA. July and August, 1891.

CONTENTS:

La Scienza dell’Educazione Nelle Scuole e nelle Riviste italiane. By F. Cicchitti-Suriani.

La Filosofia di Empedocle. By S. Ferrari.

Scienze filosofiche e sociali: Relazione sul concorso ai premii ministeriali. By A. Chiappelli.

Alcune considerazioni sull’Eclettismo. By L. Ferri.

Bibliografia, etc.

The Science of Education in Italian Schools and in Italian Reviews. Every nation is said to possess a peculiar physiognomy of its own, through which it is distinguished from every other nation; and consequently any nation will adopt a system of education that is best suited to its own national genius, to its racial, religious, and historical traditions. This may be true in a purely practical sense; but on the other hand, education, theoretically, as science or pedagogics, passes the narrow limits of any state or form of government, and ought to be ruled by principles and general laws common to the entire human family. Historically, ever since the 16th century, the educational movements in Italy have been directly called forth by the Catholic revival and reaction during and immediately following the period of the renaissance. Such was the origin of the Filippini, Ignorantelli, Barnabiti, Ignaziani, Calasanziadi, Somaschi, and of many other religious teaching-bodies that have made Italy until recently a bustling arena of ecclesiastical educational systems.

The Philosophy of Empedocles. This first instalment of Signor Ferrari’s studies deals with the cosmological ideas of the great Agrigentine poet-philosophers. From the formation of the first elements to the highest functions of the human soul throughout, we perceive that everything is governed by the same laws, and that which is best, all happiness in fact, is only found in unity and harmony, evil and pain in disagreement and in separation. The law of evolution, in the modern sense of the word, prevails everywhere in the physical system of Empedocles. Yet his philosophy did not exclusively consist in mechanical evolution. To his cosmological doctrines were added moral and religious tenets, which, however, are not evolved continuously with the former. (Rome. Tipografia delle Terme Diocleziane di G. Balbi—160 Via Cavour, 162.)

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VOPROSUI FILOSOFII I PSICHOLOGII. Vol. II. No. 4. May, 1891.

CONTENTS:

Ethics of Life and of the free Ideal. By K. Ventzel. (In this article the writer explains and criticises the well-known ethical theories of the late French thinker M. Guyau.)

The Pessimist theories of knowledge: Criticism, Positivism. By E. de Roberti.

Religious Metaphysics of the Moslem Orient. (Conclusion.) By S. Umanetz.

Letters on Count Tolstoï’s book. “On Life.” (Conclusion.) By A. Kozloff.

(The writer concludes his letters to Mr. N. N. with remarks to the effect that count Tolstoï’s philosophy in all its aspects and phases is manifestly characterized by a principle of dualism. In the development of this general principle through the different phases of his system and in his theory of knowledge this dualism might assume the name of rationalism, in metaphysics, that of idealism, and in ethics the name of ascetical, quietistic eudemonism.

On Determinism in connection with mathematical Psychology. By N. Shishkin. Lecture delivered before the Moscow Psychological Society. February, 1891.

The Domain and Limits of Suggestion. By N. Bajenoff. Lecture delivered at the annual session of the Moscow Psychological Society. January, 1891.

Anent the Fictions of professed Christianity. By Vladimir Solovieff.

(This article has appeared in an English translation in The Open Court, Nos. 206 and 208, under the title “Christianity: Its Spirit and its Errors.” It is a remarkable contribution to the literature of to-day. Professor Nicolas von Grote of Moscow writes about its author: “Vladimir Solovieff is at present, besides the Count Tolstoï, our most eminent thinker; he is a distinguished philosopher as well as theologian.... You Americans should be familiar with his works on religious and ecclesiastical ‘questions’.” Vladimir Solovieff is the author of the following works: “The Religious Foundations of Life,” “The Dogmatic Development of the Church,” “Judaism and the Christian Question.” (These titles are translated from the Russian.) Other writings of his are “L’idée russe,” “La Russie et l’église universelle,” “Geschichte der Theokratie.”)

Special Department. (1) Hegel’s Ontology. A Posthumous Dissertation. By N. P. H. Platonoff. (2) The Influence of fatigue upon the intuition of special relations. By Nik. Marün. (3) Fundamental moments in the evolution of the new philosophy. Main tendencies of the new philosophy. Empiricism and Naturalism. Bacon and Hobbes. By N. Grote. (Moscow.)

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FOOTNOTES:

Vol. II. January, 1892. No. 2.