Progress and Science: Essays in Criticism by Robert ShaferReview by: H. E. BarnesJournal of Social Forces, Vol. 2, No. 4 (May, 1924), pp. 624-626Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3005265 .

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624 The Journal of Social Forces

Hauptprobleme der Soziologie. Erinnerungsgabe fur Max Weber. By Gerhart von Schulze-Gaevernitz, Werner Sombart and Others. Munchen und Leipzig, Verlag von Duncker und Humblot, 2 vols., 1923, xxii, 389 and vii, 352 pp., M.35 gold.

These volumes are at once a splendid tribute

to the memory of Professor Max Weber and an

epitome of much of the best thought in Germany on fundamental sociological problems. Max

Weber's writings were not extensive but he made

contributions to economic history, especially to

that of antiquity, to the analysis of capitalism, and to the application of scientific method in the

social sciences. He was, however, fundamentally an ethical philosopher; he was deeply interested in Marxism and gave it a broader psychological and historical basis. He played a leading role in

the establishment of the German Republic and

had it not been for his untimely death would have doubtless appeared as one of the prominent lead?

ers of the new regime.

Space permits only an indication of the con-

tents of these volumes. Following the introduc?

tion which is an estimate of Weber as economist

and statesman by von Schulze-Gaevernitz is

Part I, dealing with "History and Method." Here

are Sombart's essay on "The Beginnings of Soci?

ology"; "Are Historical Laws Possible," by Franz Eulenburg; "The Development of Soci?

ology," (analytically rather than historically

viewed), by Hermann Kantorowicz; and "Free?

dom from Words," a study of method in eco?

nomics and sociology, by F. v.Gottl-Ottlilienfeld. Part II, entitled "Natural and Psychological Foundations of Group Life," contains: "Auto-

biography as Source of Historical Knowledge," by Hans W. Gruhle. Part III, "Fundamental

Categories and Elementary Forms of Association" is devoted to essays "On Several Primary, Socio?

logical Questions," by Eberhard Gothein; "Ob?

ject and Means in Social Life," by Ferdinand

Tonnies; "Viewpoints for the Study of Economic

Development," by R. Thurnwald. Part IV, "The

Sociology of Speech,, contains: "Language and

Society," by Leo Jordan; and "Limits of the

Sociology of Speech," by Karl Vossler.

There are similarly four parts in the second volume. Part V, "Structural Problems of the Modern State," includes: "Sociology of the Con?

cept of Sovereignty and Political Theology," by

Carl Schmitt; "The Concept of Modern Democ?

racy in Relation to the Concept of the State," by Richard Thoma; "Parliamentary Representation in England Before the First Reform Bill," by Karl Lowenstein; and "The Ways of Conquest of Democratic States by Economic Leaders," by Karl Landauer. Part VI, "Sociology of Relig? ion, Art and Science," contains "Problems of the

Sociology of Culture," by E. Lederer; "The So?

ciological Significance of the Scholastic Nomin- alist Philosophy," by Paul Honigsheim; and "Re?

ligion and Economy in China," by Arthur von Rosthorn.

Part VII, headed "Classes and Conditions," has two subdivisions: "The Nature of Social

Classes," by Paul Mombert; and "The Social Content of Goethe's Wilhelm Meisters "Lehr-

jahre," by Werner Wittich. The last division, "Economic History and Political Economy," con? tains the following: "Changes in German Eco? nomic Life and Economic Theory Since Bis-

marck," by Walter Lotz; "South German Agra- rian Development," by Heinrich Sieveking; and "The Nature of Inflation," by Melchior Palyi.

The essays of Part I will be found the most

valuable. It is interesting to observe in numerous

places throughout these essays discussions of the

sociology of culture, of the capitalist order of

social organization with reference to class strati- fication on the one hand and to ethical and re?

ligious values on the other, and of present tend- encies in the political institutions. While there are occasional references to the social psycho?

logical basis of social life, this aspect of socio?

logical discussion is evidently much less advanced in Germany than in America. Even less atten? tion is given to the biological aspect of social life,

though the organismic concept of society appears frequently. The newer aspects, however, of bio?

logical sociology are entirely wanting. F. H. Hankins.

Smith College.

Progress and Science : Essays in Criticism. By Rob? ert Shafer. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1922, x, 243 pp. $2.50.

A distinguished scholar, in commenting upon the Syllabus of Errors issued by Pius IX, re-

marked that the propositions condemned would

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The Journal of Social Forces 625

make an admirable summary statement of the

progress of modern thought from 1750 to 1864. It would be equally true to observe that those

things which Professor Shafer assaults consti- tute the more remarkable and significant contri?

butions to progressive thinking in the half cen?

tury from 1860 to 1920. This is, indeed, a

strange book. The author, an intelligent and

amiable professor of English, whose philosophy is a seeming combination of the views and atti- tudes of Parmenides, Plato, St. Paul, Plotinus, St. Augustine, Kant, Cardinal Newman, Pius IX,

Judge Gary, J. J. Walsh, and Dean West has

apparently been much irritated by the dynamic trends in modern thought and has "taken it out"

through inveighing against them in some two hundred and fifty interesting and well-written

pages. Among the significant landmarks in modern

philosophical, scientific, political, social and edu? cational thought which are condemned, as vary-

ing from containers of a slight kernel of truth in

a gigantic husk of error to completely pernicious influences, are E. G. Conklin's attempt to indi-

cate the bearings of modern biology upon social evolution and social problems; Henry Adams' effort to obtain a cosmic background for the in?

terpretation of history, and his view that "man's

development is the record of the progressive de-

gredation of vital energy"; F. S. Marvin's thesis

that we have decent assurance of progress through the advances in pure and applied science, the

growth of mechanical industry, and the material basis which these developments have contributed to the evolution of world unity; H. G. WehV outline of history as a progressive, if variable, de?

velopment toward a world state; the constructive criticism of the "acquisitive society" produced by

unregulated capitalism, which is found in the

works of G. D. H. Cole, R. H. Tawney and Bertrand Russell; Miss Follett's proposal for

political reconstruction on the basis of a recog- nition and revitalization of the group and the

group process; H. G. Wells' contention that the

only way out of our present critical and intoler-

able situation is through the introduction of a

rational system of education : the notion of Dewey. Flexner and others that this education should be concentrated on socially useful activities and

should be adjusted to the practical needs of the

age; and Walter Pater's endeavor to adapt a modified hedonism to the requirements of scien? tific naturalism. Just why James Harvey Rob- inson's Mind in the Making was not included in

this extensive exhibit of the horrors of modern

thought is not apparent. And we may hope that Mr. Shafer will never discover Freud!

Instead of these "intolerable dogmas" we are

gravely assured that those who accept as a work?

ing hypothesis the notion of human progress "are

hardly doing us any good, but are promoting rather beliefs and hopes which may in the end work an intolerable mischief in the world."

Further, "there is neither any known law of human progress nor any likelihood that one will ever be discovered. There is good reason for

suspecting that this may be not only because of the limits of human capacity but because none exists. . . . It is plain that the concept of so? cial progress?far from doing what to the popu? lar mind it at present seems to do?really empties the individual's life of all meaning and value."

Even more, we must escape from the transient and emphemeral things of this material existence and cultivate the transcendental realities of the world of the spirit. "The distinguishing charac- teristics of man are not those which link him to other animals, but precisely those which differ- entiate him from them. . . . Long ago Plu- tarch remarked that a man had better be a pig than an Epicurean; that, in other words, a healthy pig approaches the Cyrenaic ideal more closely than can a being endowed with human faculties. . . . The fundamental values of life are inner, not outer; spiritual, not material; and an unmis- takable warning has been given those men who

place their dependence upon material satisfac- tions and upon the material rewards of indus? trial civilization. . . . We may shut our ears to words of gloomy warning and attempt so fully to

enjoy ourselves as to forget, for a space, death's

approach;?yet whatever we do we cannot banish that intruding figure, which will soon enough make an end of full meals and gay dances and

joy-riding and all the variegated pride of life. ... Life is fundamentally a struggle, and a

struggle, moreover, which is never won, yet which is not always lost. And the field of this struggle is within the individual, whose fight is not against his fellows but against himself. . . . For plainly

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626 The Journal of Social Forces

only he who realizes that there is a portion of his

being which differs from and even opposes itself

to his mortal constitution and its surrounding

world?only that man has become in the f ull sense of the word human and has f reed his whole nature

for the tasks and problems of life." In spite of its anachronistic core, its super-

naturalism and casuistry and its ever obvious and

evident dogmatism and irrelevancies, the book is

not without a pertinent message. It shows rather

conclusively that the remarkable scientific, tech?

nical and economic progress of the last century,?

namely, the triumph of the "Empire of machines" ?does not necessarily mean demonstrable and

universal improvement in human well-being. It

further challenges the easy-going optimism of

many prophets of progress and utopia. But the

remedy is not to be found in a leap with Plato and Plotinus into the realm of the transcendental and spiritual, nor in a Pauline-Kantian contest within the soul. Such obscurantic and mystical avenues of relief are even more futile than the

proposal of men like Tolstoi to go back to a pre- Industrial Revolution economy. The only pos? sible and courageous solution is a scientific and eclectic scheme for a reconstruction of human motives and the proper social utilization and ra- tional control of the unparalleled material ad-

vantages which we now enjoy, as a result of scientific and technical advances. And those writers which Mr. Shafer flays are none other than the major prophets and creators of the new

order, if there is to be any such.

Perhaps, fundamentally, the book is most in-

teresting as an exhibit of the outlook of educators whose viewpoint is that of the pre-social science

age. It expresses the outraged nature of the ex-

ponents of the punitive and penitential pedagog- ical ideals of disciplinary futility and "eternal

values," as they contemplate the development of

pluralism and pragmatism, the application of sci? entific psychology to education, and the growth of a vital interest in human and social problems. Mr. Shafer differs from numerous colleagues in the American university world chiefly in the fact that he has had the energy and opportunity to set down his grouch in print. The apostle of liber- alism will be likely to express the pious wish that all of them will find it no less hard than did St. Paul to "kick against the pricks." And finally,

the book is highly instructive as an illustration of the dangers to be met in leaving the field of one's technical proficiency and competence. The

superiority of the chapter on Pater to the others in the book indicates the loss to literary criticism sustained as a result of Professor Shafer's un-

chaperoned foray into the field of social science and history.

H. E. Barnes. Smith College.

CLASSIFIED BOOK-NOTES

METHODOLOGICAL The Making of Index Numbers. A Study of Their

Varieties, Tests and Reliability. By Irving Fisher. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1923, 2d revised edition, xxxiii, 526 pp. $7.50. It is a striking indication of the wide interest in index

numbers as well as a worthy tribute to this thorough investigation that this first volume to be issued by the Pollak Foundation for Economic Research (Newton, Mass.) should have reached a second edition within five months of the first. While written with the general reader constantly in mind, it has been made, through the use of numerous charts, graphs, tables and mathemat- ical calculations, thorough enough to interest the statist? ical and mathematical expert, and to serve as a text for college and university classes. In all 134 index num? bers are studied and criticized; the "ideal formula" is elucidated; and practical suggestions for facility in com- putations are made.

F. H. H.

BIOLOGICAL Race Decadence. An Examination of the Causes of

Racial Degeneracy in the United States. By Wm. S. Sadler. Chicago: A. C. McClurg and Company, 1922, 421 pp. A popular, semi-scientific work, written by a physician

with a gift for taking himself seriously and a penchant for flooding the book market with his impressions. Each of the two parts dealing respectively with "Phys? ical Decadence" and "Mental Degeneracy" contains a considerable amount of poorly digested and uncritically sifted facts, and the whole is so loosely joined as to make the book valueless. Proof may be found in a random quotation: "There is no doubt but that some tribes of the human race used to live much longer than they do now. There are in history some remarkable accounts of longevity. We not only know they had giants in ancient times because of the records, but we find their skeletons and so we know the records are more or less accurate." Then follows the evidence; the story of King Og of Bashan who lived about 1500 B.C.

F. H. H.

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