(1) Scientific Method: its Philosophy and its Practice (2) Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society (3) Anales de Psicologia

Abstract

(1)AN excellent book for science teachers and for the general reader who wishes to acquaint himself with scientific method. Begin-ning with the consideration of words and the importance of exactness in their use, Mr. West-away enters on a sketchy history of philosophy, dealing with Plato, Aristotle, Bacon, Descartes, Locke, and Hume Thence he proceeds to logic, explaining its function in scientific method, and naturally giving prominence to J. S. Mill, though also quoting Whewell, Bain, Jevons, Alfred Sidg-wick, and Welton. Book iii. consists of useful examples of scientific procedure, drawn from the investigations of White of Selborne, A. R. Wallace, Darwin, Harvey, Lord Avebury, and others; while book iv. deals with some elementary principles of science-teaching, and has some very sensible remarks on heuristic methods. The section on Bacon is particularly good, and the famous idols are lucidly explained. Indeed, the whole book is a model of clearness. If it has a fault, it is in the direction of excessive quotation; but this is difficult to avoid when an author is exceptionally well read, and it has the compensa-ting advantage of giving the young student a wide range of actual “samples,” some of which may lure him to the study of the authors themselves.

(1) Scientific Method: its Philosophy and its Practice.

F. W. Westaway. Pp. xxi + 439. (London: Blackie and Son, Ltd., 1912.) Price 6s

(2) Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society.

New Series. Vol. xii. Containing the Papers read before the Society during the Thirty-third Session, 1911–1912. Pp. ii + 345. (London: Williams and Norgate, 1912.) Price 10s. 6d. net.

(3) Anales de Psicologia.

Trabajos del año 1910. Volumen ii. Pp. 360. (Buenos Aires: La Semana Médica. Imp. de Obras de E. Spinelli, 1911.)