A History of Magic and Experimental Science. [Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, vols. 3and 4] by LYNN THORNDIKEReview by: Albert SalomonSocial Research, Vol. 3, No. 1 (FEBRUARY 1936), pp. 123-124Published by: The New SchoolStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40981491 .

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BOOK REVIEWS 123

part dealing with the history of the cooperative structure of villages, but weak and rather misleading where it pretends to blaze trails into the wilderness of practical life; and in its general treatment of one of the problems of German destiny it is a feeble compromise.

Karl Brandt

REDLICH, FRITZ. Reklame, Begriff-Geschichte-Theorie. Stuttgart: Ferdinand Enke. 1935. 272 pp.

After an excellent introductory essay on the concept of advertising the author of this important book devotes about two thirds of his space to a history of advertising, and the remaining third to a discussion of advertising theory. In his historical survey he not only makes use of the general world literature but also draws upon much valuable per- sonal information, stressing those figures who have played a decisive role in the development of advertising. The change in the attitudes of advertisers through the course of generations is told with a sensitivity for intangible relationships which is not frequently found in the treat- ment of economic problems. On the other hand, neither the social- economic relations nor the entrepreneurial aspects of the subject are neglected. In this historical description are incorporated many inter- esting observations and insights, and in the second part of the book, which deals with the theory of advertising, these are elaborated and systematized. The systematization, however, is a little loose, and not too happily arranged. The entrepreneurial and the social-economic analyses are arbitrarily separated, and smaller sections on special topics, as well as a section on advertising statistics, are added without much regard for organic requirements. This lack of form detracts somewhat from the influence which such a thoughtful and well docu- mented work might otherwise have. There is, however, more than enough of positive significance to make us grateful to Redlich for this valuable addition to the literature on advertising.

Fritz Lehmann

THORNDIKE, LYNN. A History of Magic and Experimental Science. [Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, vols. 3 and 4.] New York: Columbia University Press. 1934. 827, 767 pp. $10. set.

Eleven years have elapsed since the publication of the first two volumes of Thorndike's History of Magic and Experimental Science. And now two more ponderous volumes have appeared, bringing the story up to the sixteenth century. Thorndike has exhausted all the relevant literature in the libraries and archives of many European

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124 SOCIAL RESEARCH countries and has found many unpublished manuscripts and in- cunabula, of which he gives us the first account available. He has assembled a vast store of material that will be indispensable for any history of intellectual development, and particularly of the genesis of scientific attitudes during the late middle ages.

Thorndike's imputation of various anonymous writings to definite scholars can be confirmed only by a specialist in medieval history. Another problem that requires detailed evaluation is the place he gives to the pseudo-scientific writings of the philosophers and scientists of the epoch.

It is not only the specialist, however, who will be grateful to Thorn- dike for the great suggestiveness of his book, particularly in the field of sociology of knowledge. He does not give a historical evolutionary description of the magical sciences, but rather a cross section of the different types of experimental sciences- astrology, astrological surgery and medicine, alchemy and so on- together with an account of se- lected practitioners of these disciplines. Of special value are those portions of his work which deal with Oresme and Gerson and the diverse chapters dedicated to humanists and philosophers of the Renaissance. The problems raised here in connection with the soci- ology of knowledge bring to mind some of the suggestions of Levy- Bruhl on the thinking of the primitives and the anthropology of Boas and his school.

All these problems relate to the structure of scientific thinking and its connections with irrationalism. It is very important, for example, to understand why in the thirteenth century- when Aristotle was be- ginning to be revived and the first attempts were being made toward philosophical positivism and empiricism (as by Siger of Brabant) -

astrology and the other pseudo-sciences were seriously discussed by the philosophers. In this connection it becomes a sociological problem to inquire into the significance of the development of rational and scientific thinking after the thirteenth century and to investigate the conservation and tradition of superstitions in the different social classes. It is not only a historical problem but a very actual one, for the combination of the anti-rationalistic philosophy and character- ology of Klages with astrology shows a new attempt to make a scien- tific approach to the problems of the magic sciences and a new ten-

dency on the part of the learned classes to believe in astrology. Thus Thorndike's book is more than a monumental contribution to the

history of medieval sciences; it is also a mine of suggestive insights into the philosophy of culture. Albert Salomon

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