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The article discusses various interpretations of the works of thinker Nicolo Machiavelli. German writer Friedrich Meinecke treated Machiavelli more as a contemplative philosopher than as a process-oriented scientist, which Machiavelli to some extent was. This failure to completely extrapolate Machiavelli's thought has serious consequences, for it tends Meinecke toward an overly narrow, monistic interpretation of state behavior. This article demonstrates that Machiavelli's writings contain the elements of a dynamic, general theory of international politics, specifically a balance of power theory. The history of contemporary American balance of power thinking suggests that the limits respected by Machiavelli are the consequence not of his primitiveness but rather his sophistication in dealing with the concept of balance of power. The research work The Theory of Economic Progress is a treatment of the forces which have shaped the development of the economy. It is a theoretical work in which a bold and sweeping explanation is given of the economic development of the Western World isolating those factors which accelerate development and those which impede it.

The focus of this paper is to examine to what extent Henri De Saint-Simon, social philosopher's ideas are in fact a living force in contemporary economic life, particularly in French-style economic planning. In many respects the dominant mood of Saint-Simon's era was similar to that which characterized France after the World War II. Saint-Simon shared with many of his contemporaries a great fear of further revolutionary upheavals. However, unlike the traditionalists, he advocated the establishment of a new society based on the emerging forces of industry and science, not a revival of institutions based on concepts lacking relevance to a new age. In a well-known parable he maintained that the loss of princes, military leaders, bishops, idle land-owners, and others who held social prominence would have only a negligible effect on society, while the disappearance of the nation's merchants, industrial leaders, scientists, and workers would cripple the community. The task of the nation, therefore, should be to replace the stagnant forms of the past with social and economic organizations conducive to efficient production and distribution.

The article attempts to measure, and indicate the trend of, contemporary expert opinion on the relationship of ethics to economics. It offers the results obtained from a questionnaire study conducted on the subject. Two groups were chosen as being most directly concerned: the economists themselves, and the philosophers, who have special interests in the field of ethics. All the answers from this group were from university teachers. Questionnaires were sent to seventy-five economists and to fifty philosophers. Of these, forty-nine economists responded, giving a 65-percent return, and twenty philosophers, giving a 40-percent return. One question asked whether or not the respondent thought that the subject was so well settled that it renders the making of normative statements an unprofessional act on the part of the economist. It is repetitive, to some extent, of questions already asked on the form, but this was done purposely to be certain that the checked answers would reliably measure the individual's belief. There were some interesting written comments.

The article discusses the notion that persons endowed with exceptional talents do not live long. Upon superficial observation this belief appears to have some foundation as several famous musicians, poets, actors and writers did not live as long on an average as the general population. A study of the literature on longevity reveals that there are several propositions which have received considerable attention. Among the leading theories found, the following are probably the most outstanding. Longevity depends to some extent upon; family traits or inheritance; the occupation a person follows; the century in which a person lived; the standard of living within which an individual spends his life. As a preliminary experiment to test the validity of the hypothesis the writers computed the mean longevity of several hundred musicians and found little to support it. This did not, of course, produce conclusive results, since other averages were needed for further comparisons. For this purpose, a tabulation was made of the lengths of life of several hundred philosophers and they were found to have slightly greater average longevity than musicians. The difference between the means, however, could not be judged as significant without a more extensive investigation.