For Political Science Students

A History of the Political Philosophers, by George Catlin (Allen and Unwin, SO/-).

Professor Catlin calls his History "a guide to political theory intelligible to the common reader;" bat the student of political science or philosophy will find the book as useful as the "common reader" finds it informative. Professor Catlin has performed the difficult feat of being at once scholarly and readable, and occasionally witty.

The History will be particularly valuable for the undergraduate in his first or second year of political science or philosophy. Professor Catlin is both clear and concise—his treatment of Hegel, for example, is interesting as being the opinion of a recognised authority, and is at the same time intelligible even for the beginner in its general description of Hegel's philosophy. He does not minimise Hegel's obscurity, but also clarifies and explains his main tenets.

Over two-thirds of the book deals with the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries, and in the first 200 pages Professor Catlin skips over the great Greek philosophers, the Roman lawyers, the Renaissance and the Reformation, up to the time of Hobbes, not to forget the 40 pages which seem to be the maximum modern writers are prepared to devote to the Middle Ages. The stress is upon recent schools and theories, and the most important philosophers from the time of Locke are treated very fully.

Everyone interested in philosophy will enjoy Professor Catlin's comments. The only disconcerting thing about the book is his habit of italicising key words and phrases, which he says is for "the guidance of the eye." Even so, we wouldn't advise you to read just the passages which contain the italics—the whole book is excellent.