History of the Philosophy of History.

by Robert Flint
Review by: H. L. Osgood
Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 10, No. 1 (Mar., 1895), pp. 167-169
Published by: The Academy of Political Science
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2139591 .
Accessed: 22/05/2014 07:20

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 of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

The Academy of Political Science is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
Political Science Quarterly.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 195.78.109.99 on Thu, 22 May 2014 07:20:12 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
No.i.] REVIEWS. I67

History of the Philosophy of History. By ROBERT FLINT.

Vol. I: HistoricalPhilosophyin France and FrenchBelgiumand
Switzerland. NewYork,CharlesScribner'sSons, I894.- 706pp.

The learned authorof this workis attempting to do for the phi-

losophyor science of historysubstantially what Janethas done for
political philosophy. His plan includes two more volumes,one
devoted to the historicalphilosophyof Germany,and anotherto
thatof Italyand England. If completedon the scale of the present
volume,theywillcontaina detailedand systematicaccount of " the
course of humanthoughtin its endeavorsto explain humanhis-
tory"; in otherwords,"of the rise and progressof reflectionand
speculationon the development of humanity."The aimof thework,
as theauthorfurtherstates,is bothhistoricaland critical. That is,
he not onlyattemptsto outlinethe theoriesas theyhave appeared,
observingboth theirhistoricaland logicalsequence,but he subjects
themto criticismin orderto ascertaintheirmeritsand defects,their
relativetruthor falsity. This methodof treatmentis here applied
forthe firsttime,and on a largescale, to thefieldof history.
In an introduction of nearlytwohundredpages ProfessorFlint
clears the wayfor the special and systematicportionof the work.
He unfoldsin thishis viewof the natureof history, of the applica-
tion of the termsscience and philosophyto the subject,of the dis-
tinctionbetweenhistoryand historiography.The broadestpossible
view of the subjectis obtainedby adoptingthe distinctionbetween
natureand historywhichDroysenhas made familiar. Not onlythe
possibility,but the existence,of a science of historyis affirmed,and
Guizotis assignedtheforemost place amongits founders. Still,the
nearestapproximation whichthe authormakesto a definition of this
science is substantiallythat it is the applicationof the scientific
methodto the subject-matter of history,endingin thediscoveryof
certainlaws of human development. Closely related to it is the
philosophyof history, whichtraces the relationsin whichit stands
to otherdepartments of knowledge. These togetherformthe sub-
ject-matter of thiswork.
Preparatory to his entranceuponthe study,ProfessorFlintoutlines
the developmentof the three fundamentalideas withoutwhicha
philosophyof historyis impossible,viz., progress,freedomand
humanity, or the unityof the race as to its essential nature. He
showsthatpreviousto the close of the middleages theseideaswere
butdimlyapprehended.and thatby onlya fewteachers. In France

This content downloaded from 195.78.109.99 on Thu, 22 May 2014 07:20:12 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
I68 POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY. [VOL. X.

in the sixteenthcenturyBodin saw that the fact of progress underlay

human history,but he was chieflyconcerned with law and political
science. Bossuet is, of course, the representative historian of the
seventeenthcentury,but his thought moved wholly within the lines
of the orthodox religious views of the age. The eighteenthcentury
learned to study man as man, and grasped the idea of progressmore
clearly than any previous age. Economic science was also devel-
oped. These were conditions essential to the scientific treatmentof
the subject, and something like a philosophy of history begins to
appear. The two great services rendered by Montesquieu were
these, that he brought history and economics into alliance for the
explanation of social phenomena, and that he so clearly taught the
doctrine of historical relativismas to win educated Europe over to its
acceptance. But among the men of this period who contributedto
the wealth of historical ideas, Professor Flint is inclined to give the
firstplace to Turgot, and this because of the profoundview of social
progress as the basis of historywhich he gave in his discourses at
the Sorbonne. Unlike many of his contemporaries,he was able to
do justice to the past, while with them he believed in the perfecti-
bilityof the race. "If the philosophy of history,"says the author,
"be merelya scientificrepresentationof universal historyas a process
of progressive development,Turgot has probably a better claim than
any one else to be called its founder." Condorcet, who lived under
the full influenceof the revolution,carried the ideas of progress and
humanityto their utmost development, and with him the work of the
eighteenth centuryin this domain of thought closed. It is evident
that the effortsmade to develop a philosophy of historyhad up to
that time been very few and imperfect.
The revolution greatly strengthenedthe hold which the ideas of
progress, libertyand humanityhad over the minds of men. In con-
nection with the growth of natural science the theoryof evolution
was perfected. These facts were favorable to speculation about
human development, and by two of the French thinkersof the pres-
ent century,Cousin and Comte, notable attemptshave been made to
construct a philosophy of history. The former,using suggestions
derived from Hegel, and making psychology his starting point,
regarded historyas the expression of the progress of human thought
according to a preconceived order. The latter, like the socialists
with whom he was closely connected, worked under the strong in-
fluence of natural science. The result was the view that historyis a
departmentof social physics, though with a method largely its own.

This content downloaded from 195.78.109.99 on Thu, 22 May 2014 07:20:12 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 No. I.] REVIEWS. I69

The conception of law pervading it is brought over fromthe natural

sciences. The idea of progress is analyzed at length,but its stages
are fixed according to the famous formula which Comte borrowed
fromSt. Simon. Imperfect knowledge of historymade the general-
izations of Comte, as well as those of Cousin, misleading and unsat-
isfactory.
It is not strange,then,that in these later years a critical school has
arisen, whose members have rejected apriori reasoning concerning
history,and have based their conclusions on the most thoroughstudy
of the facts. Cournot and Renouvier are the leading representatives
of this tendency in France, and only by the labors of such as they,
extended over a long period of time, can the foundation be laid on
which somethinglike a satisfactoryphilosophyof historycan be built.
That, at least, is the impression which the reviewer has drawn from
Professor Flint's book. It is a work abounding in thorough and
suggestive criticism of historians as well as philosophers, a monu-
ment of learning and research. To the ordinaryreader its account
of the development of historiographyis likely to prove its most val-
uable feature. H. L. OSGOOD.

Cases and Opinions on International Law. With notes and a

Syllabus. By FREEMAN SNOW, Ph.D. Boston, The Boston Book
Co., I893. - 586 pp.

Treaties and Topics in American Diplomacy. By FREEMAN

SNOW, Ph.D. Boston, The Boston Book Co., I894.- 55 PP.

These two volumes constitutean interestingand valuable addition

to the works specially designed for the use of persons pursuing the
study of international law and diplomacy. We have had various
students' editions of treatises on those subjects, and we have had
manuals specially prepared for the use of students; but the two
volumes now before us embody the first attempt to furnish the
student, in convenient form, with documentary material to work
upon.
While I take pleasure in expressing an unhesitatinglyfavorable
opinion of the usefulnessof these volumes, I must admit that when,
after reading the preface to the Cases on InternationalLaw, I first
examined what followed, I felt a sense of disappointment. In the
preface the author states that the object of the compilation is to

This content downloaded from 195.78.109.99 on Thu, 22 May 2014 07:20:12 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions