Franciscan Studies

220COMMENTAMES BOOK THREE MODERN PHILOSOPHY Much of what is to be said in a general way on Russell's work has been pointed out in the preceding sections of this report. The same criticisms as raised against Russell's presentation of Ancient and Medieval philosophy prevail also, and perhaps in an even higher degree, in regard to his dealing with Modern Philosophy. One encounters in this part the same arbitrariness of choice, concerning personalities and problems, and the same superficiality of discussion, if one dees not prefer to consider this latter characteristic the effect of a definite bias. Russell's book purposes to study the history of philosophy mainly in so far as it has bearings on the development of political thought and political action. One might presume that this relation would become particularly visible and important with the philosophies of modern times; first, because our knowledge of influences, dependencies, of the infiltration of philosophical ideas in political theory and behavior, and of the determination of the former by the contemporary political situation is much more complete than it is when we are dealing with Antiquity or the Middle Ages. One obvious reason for our better acquaintance with such questions is the simple fact that we have at our disposal a far more complete evidence than that available in regard to the distant past. Secondly, the ideas, philosophical and political, proposed in modern and recent times are much more congenial to modern thinking than those of either the age of Plato or that of Aquinas. The philosopher of to-day presumably understands Hegel's position , or J. St. Mill's, or even that of Leibniz better in its relation to the socio-political conditions of their times than that of the Stoics or of Aegidius Romanus. Thirdly, a greater number of thinkers were directly concerned with problems bearing on politics in recent times than were in the past. One turns therefore, with a certain expectation to the parts of Russell's work which are to be discussed now, only to be deeply disappointed. The author fails utterly to fulfill what the title of his book seemed to promise. COMMENTAMES221 One reason for this disappointment is the disregard the author displays for many figures which were of definite importance for the development of political thought. Either he did not consider these writers as sufficiently influential, or he was unable to realize the rôle they played. In any case, the student who would want to learn something on modern philosophy in its relation to political thought will not profit by the perusal of this book; he would get a very incomplete and rather distorted notion of the content of Western philosophy and its influence on political developments, more by his own interests for a particular aspect or problem than by the desire to supply the reader with comprehensive information. Hence, he selects sometimes as particularly important or characteristic one or the other detail and disregards the whole of a philosopher's ideas. We shall see how this attitude of selectivity works out, for instance, in his chapter on Kant. There are several ways of writing a history of philosophy. One may present a perfectly objective report, so as to enable the reader to become acquainted with the fundamentals of a philosophical doctrine; the classical example of this mode of precedure is Ueberweg-Heinze. Or one may view the history of philosophy as preparation for the system in which one believes oneself and consider the latter as the culmination of the whole development throughout the centuries; this is the case with Hegel or also with Deussen. One may also write a history of philosophy to show the relations ideas and systems had with other factors, social, political, or others. Here one has to show how philosophies determined the emergence and influence of, e.g., notions on government or human relations, and on the other hand, how philosophical doctrines depended on and were fashioned by the trends of their own times. It is obviously the latter method which Russell intended to use. The title of his work states that he is going to present the. history of philosophy "from the earliest times up...