SOURCE: Review of The Philosophy of 'As If,' in The New Statesman, Vol. XXIII, No. 588, July, 1924, p. 472.

In the following essay, the reviewer finds Vaihinger's theory in The Philosophy of "As If" to be "indistinguishable from Pragmatism."

In the slow crystallisation of the amorphous mass of thought which we label "Modern Realism," one of the most significant developments has been the reinterpretation of Kant. Hans Vaihinger has been the genius of this movement. To him more than to any other is due the credit of rescuing the philosophy of his great fellow-countryman from the gentle tyranny of his Hegelian paraphrasers. His keen and sympathetic understanding of English philosophy aided him in this work to no slight extent; as it helped to make him, in the years before the War, a far-sighted critic of his country's policy and a prophet of the disaster which has overtaken her. The...