Kant's Theory of Time (review)

214 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY overridden. Consequently, Hobbes's indictment of democracy is extensive and challenging , even to contemporary political thinkers. McPherson's explication of Hobbes's belief that the common citizen may be taught the rationale of simple political obligation is well done. Because man makes decisions only in terms of short-term personal benefit, he can at least be educated to the benefits of civil society. The calculus of having or not having is readily understandable. The influence of the corporate society in which Hobbes lived appears more as an exampling device than as a premise. As a bourgeois spokesman, he clearly felt that his society represented the best hope for mankind. Relationships commonly found in the marketplace had specific applicability to the political sphere, both as objects of social control and as analogies of social and political activities. An informal word count indicates that Hobbes used commercial terms extensively in his explanations; terms such as benefit, buy, sell, business and others occur so frequently that some significance must be attributed to their use. McPherson's market thesis has assumptions similar to those of the contemporary "pure political theorists," who are economists attempting to apply microeconomic analysis to political theory. Their most successful and definitive work has usually been done in the finite realm of public finance. From their market propositions about social intercourse , they hypothesize a logical mechanics of democratic theory. The obhgation barrier in political science seems to vex these modern theorists, and McPherson, as much as it did Hobbes. McPherson feels that class interests have historically provided the secular motivation for cohesiveness, but the fragile bonds of class are too often broken by change to be effective for social peace. Buchanan and Tullock recognize, as did Hobbes, the uncertainty and lack of voter responsibility that the citizen faces in making social choices. Downs has concluded that voter participation is illogical due to the costs of voting. So political obligation in the positive sense is elusive. Kenneth Arrow has made a statement even more similar to Hobbes: on the basis of the individualist analysis, he concludes that when an electorate is given more than two choices there can be no way that the outcome can be determined by voter sovereignty with what he considers minimum rationality. Downs, Buchanan, and Tullock also imply that this methodology is not suitable for analysis of customary societies, but Arrow sees no reason why customary aspects of society cannot be assumed to reflect individual choices. There appears to be enough good work available to question McPherson's statement that only the possessive market society can operate on Hobbesian terms. His analysis of the history of the liberal tradition is a useful frame of reference and provides an historical perspective to modern liberal soul-searching. Hobbes, however, deserves more credit as a political theorist and less as a sociologist than McPherson allows. ERNEST LEONARD Claremont, Cali[ornfiu Kant's Theory of Time. By Sadik J. A1-Azm. (New York: Philosophical Library, 1967. Pp. 84. $3.95) Sadik J. AI-Azm believes the literature on Kant's concept of time to be deficient, particularly when contrasted with studies on Kant's concept of space. The hterature pertaining to the latter, the author contends, is much more carefully worked out, thorough, and adequate in its subject matter. AI-Azm undertakes his study for the BOOK REVIEWS 215 purpose of overcoming this state of affairs. He conceives his work at least as a contribution toward this end. In his book he considers both Kant's pre-critical and critical theories of time. Though much too short a work to cover its topic adequately and crippled at crucial points, I believe, by conceptual difficulties, Kant's Theory of Time does shed some valuable, though not always fresh insight on problems surrounding the development and structure of Kant's temporal theories. One of the basic problems of A1-Azm's work centers around his conception of Kant's critical period. He includes both Kant's Inaugural Dissertation and his Critique of Pure Reason within this period and quotes at will from both works throughout the second and longest section of his book, the section devoted to Kant's...