THE POSITIVE SCIENCE MORALS:

Otago Witness, Issue 2861, 13 January 1909, Page 87

THE POSITIVE SCIENCE MORALS :

ITS OPPORTUNENESS, ITS OUTLINES, AND ITS CHIEF APPLICATIONS. o> By the late Pierre Laffitte, Professor at the College d« France. Translated by J. Carey Hall, M.A., etc.. H.B.M.'s Consul-General for Yokohama. London : Watte and Co. Dunedin : Whitcombe and Tombs, Limited, R. J. Stark and Co., and Braithwaite's Book Arcade. 3s. Positivism is a plrafe of faith but little heard of in this hemisphere. Probably, as the oultured and highly literate class iccreases in numbers, more attention will be given to it. A system, or view, of Nature and religion capable of retaining the whole-hearted devotion of mLr.dc such as those of the late George Eliot, and o£ j Jlr Frederick Harrison hi our own day, J must of necessity be a thing of strength and • stamina. The present Tchirae does j not deal with pesitivkm rs a -whole, but j with moraJ science from, a positive stand- j point. As is -well known to the informed. Augaiste Comte did _iot lire to write his i projected treatise on this subject. But j hi? chief dibciple, Pierre Laflitte. imbued j by personal intercourse with his master's i ideas, and guided by the indications given in Ire latex writings, devoted many years t» the scientific study of ethics, and to the construction of a synthesis of moral j truths resting upoti sociology as its basis. | His two courses of lectures, one on Theoretical Morals and the other on Practical Morals, were published in the Revue j Occidentale during the years of 1885 to < 1887. But the first sketch of th 3 result j of his labours was made public in the form of a lecture delivered at Havre emae years previously, -which was i' UD " liehed," with additions, in 1889. It 's ; this initial outline of the highest and ■ most complex of the abstract tcknres that t is now pre-rant-ad in an English version. : An introduction to the French original, j giving an account* of his fiier.d and dis- j ciple, the late Emile Antoine, has since j been republished as a separate work. ; Human nature, the subject of theoretical , morals, and education, the concern of I practical morals, have been treated from j the positivist standpoint in two works, j based respectively on Comtek and Laffitte's i writings, by the late Dr John Kells In- I gram, formerly Regius Professor of Greek I and vice-president of Trinity College, Dub- j lin. From the exposition of pci-itiv© doc- i irine therein given it can be seen how decisively the scientific spirit has shown its competence to enter into possession of a domain which was onca the special province of theology, and is now the favourite ; playground of metaphysicians. In bring- ( ing" M. Lamtte't* own earlier summary of moral science .to the notice of Engli-h readers, the hops is expressed that it will help to strengthen in some minds, and to i implant in others, the conviction that the , phenomena of conduct, individual, civic., j and national, are subject to natural laws, > ■wlrich, to an even greater extent than J other natural laws, are susceptible of modi- , fiecftion, and that, consequently, the ' methodical istudy of moral ccieuce by j adequately trained intellects, whose func- , tion it shall be to teach and apply it, is | cow tho main requisite for the systematic i improvement of moral practice, and leads j — according to its expositors — inevitably ' to tho acceptance of scientific religion — j Comte' j= crowning discovery — as the only ' rational substitute for the various types ' of supernatural religion which h^.ve here- I tofore prevailed amongst mankind. ', To .all save the utterly purblind it be- | comes increasingly evident that this is an age distinguished above all else by its theology-altering proclivities. In that view it can. hardly be claimed as a happy time — transition stages are alwavis moie or less distressful. To the few who take ! active cognisance of such matters, Ik>w- j ever, this very thoughtful and thoughtinspiring book may be heartily commended. Apart altogether from acquiescence in the fundamental conclusions, there is a great deal in it that will aroree and stimulate the mental faculties, and open I Tip new views on education and tthics to ' receptive minds. — Dinorkis. I" ■ . j