He bears out his view of _idées-forces_ by showing how a state of consciousness tries to realise its object. The idea of movement is closely bound up with the physiological and physical action, and, moreover, tends to produce it. This realisation is not a merely mechanistic process but is teleological and depends on the vital unity between the physical and the mental. On this fundamental notion Fouillée constructs his psychology, his ethic, his sociology and his metaphysic. He sees in the evolutionary process ideas at work which tend to realise themselves. One of these is the idea of freedom, in which idea he endeavours to find a true reconciliation of the problem of determinism in science and the demands of the human spirit which declares itself free. The love of freedom arising from the idea of freedom creates in the long run this freedom. This is Fouillée’s method all through. “To conceive and to desire the ideal is already to begin its realisation.” He applies his method with much success in the realm of ethics and sociology where he opposes to the Marxian doctrine of a materialist determination of history that of a spiritual and intellectual determination by ideas. Fouillée’s philosophy is at once intellectual and voluntarist. He has himself described it as “spiritualistic voluntarism.” It is a system of idealism which reflects almost all the elements of modern thought. In places his doctrine of reconciliation appears to break down, and the psychological law summed up in _idées-forces_ is hardly sufficient to bear the vast erection which Fouillée builds upon it. The idea is nevertheless a valuable and fruitful one. Fouillée’s respect for positive science is noteworthy, as is also his great interest in social problems.[47] [47] At the end of the century these problems received highly specialised attention in the work of the sociologists inspired by Comte’s influence. Works of special merit in this direction are: tspmas, with his _Société’s animales_ (1876) and Tarde, predecessor of Bergson at the Collège de France (1843-1907), with his _Criminalité comparée_ (1898) and _Les Lois de l’Imitation_ (1900), also Durkheim’s work _De la Division du Travail social_ (1893) and _Les Régles de la Méthode sociologique_ (1894), and Izoulet, with his _La Cité moderne_ (1894). Note those of Levy-Bruhl, Bouglé, and Le Bon.