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BOOK REVIEWS 111 ence for the saved. Malebranche's "Kingdom of grace" sees all men as ends worthy of "esteem" irrespective of their acts, and this serves as a "regulative ideal" to all; Leibniz too posits such a kingdom as the "metaphysically grounded ideal, imperfectly actualized" (p. 243). Again, if as Loemker notes, the "symbiosis" of natural law doctrine was shattered by Bentham and Hegel (p. 243), how did the synthesis of the seventeenth century "fail"? Even if ensuing moral relativism was due to increasing isolation or cultural confusions, it is not philosophers' abilities that determine such events; or if it is, no argument is made here. Loemker stressed the asymmetry of love in Leibniz--that one may love another unrequited, yet still be changed for the better by so loving, and even perhaps be of help to the other who does not return love in kind. It might be suggested that the philosopher has a similar role---he may be of value to his society by articulating a synthesis sensibly unifying apparently disparate realms of experience and thereby stabilizing the more civilizing virtues by their unification. But if such is not the result, how is he a "failure"? Loemker suggests that the key to the period is the debate over "freedom"--was it to be self-determination, or determination among others according to the possible best order of the whole? From CampaneUa to Hobbes, Malebranche and Leibniz, the latter alternative held strongly, at least in their thought if not in their native lands. By 1700, the man of honor was no more than a booster with a superficial code; private morality was divided from power, and public power "throve" on vices, as depicted by Mandeville's Fable of the Bees. History showed no headway toward realization of the ideals normative to the great systems; it showed only increasing power, and increasing discord over its uses. The "metaphysical failure" was in "the concept of the individual" as a basis for lived complexity. The philosophers needed to see man as a substance in community, meeting the demands of "communication and cooperative action." Instead, Leibniz's monads had "no windows." But half of Malebranche's ethics stresses the interrelational factor in all duties, yet it is not discussed here, nor is Hobbes's theory of citizenship and his "articles of peace." If a sense of history was a vital developing issue and Leibniz was weak there, why not indicate the strengths of Hobbes and Malebranche? If the "apologetic and strategic" punch of a philosopher's metaphysics had to allow for variety of experience and of beings, then why fault the "experimental" ethics of Malebranche and not notice that Leibniz made no such effort? Finally, if the theory of action is vital to synthesis, why neglect Hobbes and Malebranche , who stress that theory, yet praise Leibniz, who developed his by help from them yet ended up with "no windows" and no interdependence? If this volume is evaluated on its author's opening statement as the case for "the idealistic synthesis" which yet also contained its own defect within itself by certain "weaknesses " (p. vi), it does not cohere. But if it is read with little stress on that claim and maximum attention to the drama of each thinker's struggles, to unforeseen strengths and troubles, the great import of good and poor thinking, the sometimes small impact of some of the best work of the age (e.g., Bisterfeld), then Professor Loemker's vast scholarship and candor make it an exciting and illuminating book. Relationships, patterns, perspectives are achieved which have not been available before, and due to these contributions, this volume needs to be read and debated for some time to come. CRAIGWALTON University of Nevada, Los Vegas Lord Kames and the Scotland o! his Day. By Ian Simpson Ross. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972. Pp. xiv + 420. $17.65) From the 1720's to the early 1780's, Henry Home, Lord Kames, was at the center of nearly every important literary, philosophical, and improving activity in Edinburgh and in Scotland. His mind and pen contributed to the Scottish enlightenment, while his energy, 112 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY social standing and coarse wit...

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