Book Reviews and Notices : A History of Political Theory. By GEORGE H. SABINE. (New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1950. Revised Edition. Pp. xxi, 934. $4.60.)

• Published date: 01 March 1951
• Date: 01 March 1951
• Author: C.B. Macpherson
• DOI: 10.1177/106591295100400124
• Subject Matter: Articles

143
The second part, devoted to the early modern period ( 1512-1690),
includes texts from Machiavelli, Bodin, Francis Bacon, Descartes, Pascal,
Hobbes, Fontenelle, Perrault, and Locke.
The third part, which is devoted to the modern development of
progress sets up two major theses: first, that progressive change in the past
has been natural and necessary; and second, that progressive change as
natural and necessary assured mankind unlimited increase of knowledge
and well-being in the future. Attention is also paid to the idea of Leibniz,
Bernard Mandeville, Lafitau, Montesquieu, Hume, Turgot, Helv6tius,
Ferguson, Adam Smith, William Robertson, Volney, Kant, Herder, and
Condorcet, from whom selected texts are included. &dquo;The relevant theoret-
ical contributions that were made during the nineteenth century,&dquo; Teggart
says, &dquo;represented an extension of older ideas rather than an attempt at
radically new departures.&dquo; The ideas of Comte, Hegel, Marx, Engels,
Mill, Spencer, and Darwin are considered in the Introduction, and selec-
tions from them are also included in the readings.
The idea of progress dominated European thought until the First World War....
For many contemporary students of man, however, progress has ceased to be a necessity
and the search for general laws of this character has long since been abandoned for the
investigation of more empirical and more workable, though not necessarily less important,
problems.
Professor Hildebrand refers to some contemporary doctrines, such as
the views of Spengler, Toynbee, Ortega y Gasset, Sorokin, and Niebuhr.
As far as contemporary philosophy may obtain a deeper insight into
man’s historical condition, it will be possible by the study of this volume
to get a better knowledge of the meaning and scope of progress.
DR. LUIS RECASENS-SICHES.
United Nations, Lake Success.
A History of Political Theory. By GEORGE H. SABINE. (New York: Henry
Holt and Company. 1950. Revised Edition. Pp. xxi, 934. $4.60.)
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