By Otto Pipatti

While highly respected among evolutionary scholars, the sociologist, anthropologist and philosopher Edward Westermarck is now largely forgotten in the social sciences. This book is the first full study of his moral and social theory, focusing on the key elements of his theory of moral emotions as presented in The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas and summarised in Ethical Relativity. Examining Westermarck’s evolutionary approach to the human mind, the author introduces important new themes to scholarship on Westermarck, including the pivotal role of emotions in human reciprocity, the evolutionary origins of human society, social solidarity, the emergence and maintenance of moral norms and moral responsibility. With attention to Westermarck’s debt to David Hume and Adam Smith, whose views on human nature, moral sentiments and sympathy Westermarck combined with Darwinian evolutionary thinking, Morality Made Visible highlights the importance of the theory of sympathy that lies at the heart of Westermarck’s work, which proves to be crucial to his understanding of morality and human social life. A rigorous examination of Westermarck’s moral and social theory in its intellectual context, this volume connects Westermarck’s work on morality to classical sociology, to the history of evolutionism in the social and behavioural sciences, and to the sociological study of morality and emotions, showing him to be the forerunner of modern evolutionary psychology and anthropology. In revealing the lasting value of his work in understanding and explaining a wide range of moral phenomena, it will appeal to scholars of sociology, anthropology and psychology with interests in social theory, morality and intellectual history.

Oxon, Abingdon, UK: New York; Routledge, 2020. 150p.

By Bernard Glueck.

“ Forensic Psychiatry is a classic psychology history text by Bernard Glueck. When, in 1810, Franz Joseph Gall said: "The measure of culpability and the measure of punishment can not be determined by a study of the illegal act, but only by a study of the individual committing it," he expressed an idea which has, in late years, come to be regarded as a trite truism. This called forth as an unavoidable consequence a more lively interest on the part of various social agencies in the personality of the criminal, with the resultant gradually increasing conviction that the suppression of crime is not primarily a legal question, but is rather a problem for the physician, sociologist, and economist.”

Boston: Little, Brown, & Co. 1916. 269p.

By William Healy.

“The great value of understanding] the foundations of conduct is clearly shown by such living facts as are gathered together in this volume. Bearing upon one type of causation of misconduct, we have here not only a rational psychological theory, but also abundant concrete material. An important field is opened before us, especially interesting because of the revelation (a) of potent subconscious mental mechanisms working ac- cording to definite laws of mental life, and (6) of types of hidden early experiences which definitely evoke these mental processes that are forerunners of misconduct. Troublesome behavior, originating in the experiences and mechanisms here under discussion, ranges widely from mere faults of social attitude to severe delinquency and crime dependent upon uncontrolled anti-social motivation or impulse. Cases having this causation occur so frequently that specific knowledge of their nature should be part of the equipment of all who have to pass judgment or to advise concerning misdoing and misdoers.” Boston: Little, Brown and Co. 1917. 330p.

By Maurice de Fleury.

“The science of the human brain has assumed such importance within a quarter of a century, it has so quickly reached so high a degree of precision, it results from so thorough and unanimous an agreement among biologists of all countries, it throws so strong a light upon the phenomena of the mind, that it would now be quite impossible to dispense with it in treating of general psychology, and more especially of criminal psychology. That knowledge—attended at first sight with disconcerting difficulties and alarms, by reason of its complexity—may, nevertheless, be easily simplified and placed within the reach of the least studious minds. For those who go deeply into it, the knowledge of the functions of the brain quickly assumes the pure lines, the harmonious proportions and the symmetrical arrangement of a typical French gardzn, with its straight walks, cut out in the dim forest of the old classical psychology.! Let us walk together in that garden, keeping a few plans, mere rudimentary drawings, under our eyes, lest we should lose our way. Here is one, in the first place, which represents the topography, the geography of one half of the brain,” or, to employ the phrase in use, the cerebral localizations on the left hemisphere.”

London: Downey & Co., 1901. 196p.

By Arthur Macdonald.

Being Essays on Education and Crime and Related Subjects, With Digests of Literature and a Bibliography. The present work may perhaps be considered as an introduction to abnormality in general, giving a description, diagnosis, and synthesis of human abnormalities, which seem to be constant factors in society.

Washington, DC: U.S. Bureau of Education, Government Printing Office, 1893. 463p.

By J. Sanderson Christison.

“Last winter I contributed a series of articles to the Chicago Tribune under the caption of "Jail Types," which were so favorably noticed, both in Europe and America, that my friends have urged their appearance in book form. With some typographical corrections, the articles are here presented in their original text, with a number of additional sketches. While they do not constitute a systematic treatise on the subject of criminology, they present the points of most importance in a form and style intended to attract and interest the general reader, who will find much to reflect upon in the line of duty as a member of society at large.” (from Preface)

Chicago: THE W. T. Keener Co. 1897 117p.

By Havelock Ellis.

The “science” of criminality as presented by the famous psychiatrist Havelock Ellis. Lavishly illustrated with empirical and physical evidence to support his theories, findings and other truth claims. In this 4th edition (1910) of The Criminal first published in 1890, Ellis is pleased that there is “an approximation to general agreement” concerning his findings.

London. New York. Walter Scott Publishing. (1910) 494 pages.