Philosophical Review

Le Problème Pedagogique. by Jules DuboisReview by: E. JordanThe Philosophical Review, Vol. 23, No. 6 (Nov., 1914), pp. 696-697Published by: Duke University Press on behalf of Philosophical ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2178147 .

Accessed: 15/05/2014 14:21

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Duke University Press and Philosophical Review are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extendaccess to The Philosophical Review.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.78.109.78 on Thu, 15 May 2014 14:21:11 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

696 THE PHILOSOPHICAL REVIEW. [VOL. XXIII.

attache i n'exposer que les conclusions certaines de ces sciences. Dans une premiere serie de I4 Conf6rences, j'ai etabli les bases de la Pedagogie experi- mentale; dans la seconde serie (2I Conf6rences reparties sur 3 annees) je montrerai les deductions innombrables que l'on peut tirer de ses donnees fondamentales. "

The author is professor of experimental psychology in the University of Ghent, and the work here described is introduced to the French public in a preface by Gabriel Compayre, Inspector General of Public Instruction. The work includes an Introduction, in which the author sets forth his general views on education, and describes his purpose in the work. The first three chapters discuss the methods of scientific psychology. There follows a chapter on the nervous system, four chapters on sensation, one on imagination and attention, one on intellectual fatigue and overwork, two on memory, and a concluding chapter on conscious measurements.

The book adopts a rather wholesome attitude with regard to the present status of educational theory and practice, and assumes in the work of the school a progressive development which in many instances has shown admir- able results. Indeed, the higher mentality of the popular classes of the present day shows that the primary school has not failed in its mission. But modern school systems are still far from perfect; on the contrary, "master and pupil, ignorant and learned, show by their speech and by their action that the school, as it exists at present, is much inferior to what it ought to be" (p. 2). On account of its thorough methods of psychological analysis the present work ought to contribute something toward a more complete under- standing of the requirements of educational theory and thereby to a fuller realization of the purposes of the school.

E. JORDAN.

BUTLER COLLEGE.

Le Proble'me Pedagogique. Par JULES DUBOIS. Paris, Felix Alcan, i9i1.- pp. viii, 538.

This work is, as its sub-title announces, an essay upon the status of the pedagogical problem and an attempt at a solution of the problem. It is addressed (preface) to teachers, and especially to those of the author's pupils who expect to take up the career of teacher. The purpose of the book is, in the words of the author, "amener quelques-uns de ceux qui se destinent a la carriere de 1' enseignement a la conviction qu'ils ont a r'soudre un problem d'une importance et d'une gravity exceptionnelles; essayer de determiner quels sont les elements generaux de ce problem et quelle est la valeur relative de chacum d'eux; indiquer dans quelles directions peut se faire la recherche des solutions; en un mot, non pas apporter des principes et des conseils qui dispenseraient du travail individual de recherche, mais au contraire inviter a ce travail, exposer comme une methode de pensee et d'investigation person- nelles . . . " (pp. 5-6).

This content downloaded from 195.78.109.78 on Thu, 15 May 2014 14:21:11 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

No. 6.1 NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 697

The body of the work is divided into three parts. The first part contains three chapters, the first of which discusses thirteen 'pedagogical types.' The second describes half a dozen tendencies in contemporary pedagogy, and the third attempts a critical analysis of the pedagogical problem. The second part, with the general title "La recherche des solutions," contains two chapters, one devoted to an examination of essential questions, and the other to the discussion of the positions occupied by science and philosophy with regard to the pedagogical problem. The third part carries the title "Solutions personnelles." "Nous y indiquerons comment nous cherchons pour notre part la solution du problem pedagogique, quel principe nous adoptons, pourquoi ce principe plut6t qu'un autre, quelles deductions enfin nous croyons pouvoir en tirer" (p. io). The two chapters here described represent an unusually serious attempt to understand educational theory in its relations to other thought interests, and it is an agreeable surprise to find in a work on education a discussion of topics like "Pedagogie, morale et metaphysique" (p. 388), "L'ideal spirituel" (p. 439), and to find the task of the educator seriously regarded as a work of personal culture and personal influence.

E. JORDAN.

BUTLER COLLEGE.

The following books also have been received: Feeblemindedness. By HENRY H. GODDARD. New York, The Macmillan

Company, 1914.-PP. xiv, 599. $4.00. Philosophy: What is It? By F. B. JEVONS. New York, G. P. Putnam's

Sons, I9I4.-PP. iv, 172. $1.00.

The Theory of Relativity. By L. SILBERSTEIN. London, Macmillan and Com- pany, I9I4.-PP. Vi, 295. $2.50.

The Man of Genius. By HERMANN TtRCK. London, Adam and Charles Black, I914.-pp. 483.

The Theory of Beauty. By E. F. CARRITT. New York, The Macmillan Company, 1914.-pp. 299. $2.00.

What Can I Know? By GEORGE T. LADD. New York, Longmans, Green, and Company, 1914.-PP. vi, 311. $1.50.

The God Who Found Himself. By ALFRED WARD SMITH. Boston, Sherman, French and Company, I9I4.-PP. 176. $I.25.

Milton and Jakob Boehme. By MARGARET L. BAILEY. New York, Oxford University Press, 1914.-PP. 200.

Art in Education and Life. By HENRY DAVIES. Columbus, Ohio, R. G. Adams and Company, 1914.-PP. xii, 334.

Experiments. By PHILIP E. EDELMAN. Minneapolis, Philip E. Edelman 1914.-PP. 256. $1.50.

Behavior. An Introduction to Comparative'Psychology. By JOHN B. WATSON.

New York, Henry Holt and Company, 1914.-PP. xii, 439. Benedicti de Spinoza Opera. Edited by J. VAN VLOTEN and J. P. N. LAND.

The Hague, Martinus Nijhoff, 1914.-4 vols., pp. x, 273, 33I, 247, viii, 249.

This content downloaded from 195.78.109.78 on Thu, 15 May 2014 14:21:11 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions