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Introduction
PHILOSOPHY is the science of
estimating values. The superiority of any state or substance over another is
determined by philosophy. By assigning a position of primary importance to
what remains when all that is secondary has been removed, philosophy thus
becomes the true index of priority or emphasis in the realm of speculative
thought. The mission of philosophy a priori is to establish the relation of
manifested things to their invisible ultimate cause or nature.
"Philosophy," writes Sir
William Hamilton, "has been defined [as]: The science of things divine and
human, and of the causes in which they are contained [Cicero]; The science of
effects by their causes [Hobbes]; The science of sufficient reasons [Leibnitz];
The science of things possible, inasmuch as they are possible [Wolf]; The
science of things evidently deduced from first principles [Descartes]; The
science of truths, sensible and abstract [de Condillac]; The application of
reason to its legitimate objects [Tennemann]; The science of the relations of
all knowledge to the necessary ends of human reason [Kant];The science of the
original form of the ego or mental self [Krug]; The science of sciences [Fichte];
The science of the absolute [von Schelling]; The science of the absolute
indifference of the ideal and real [von Schelling]--or, The identity of
identity and non-identity [Hegel]." (See Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic.)
The six headings under which
the disciplines of philosophy are commonly classified are: metaphysics,
which deals with such abstract subjects as cosmology, theology, and the nature
of being; logic, which deals with the laws governing rational thinking,
or, as it has been called, "the doctrine of fallacies"; ethics, which
is the science of morality, individual responsibility, and
character--concerned chiefly with an effort to determine the nature of good;
psychology, which is devoted to investigation and classification of
those forms of phenomena referable to a mental origin; epistemology,
which is the science concerned primarily with the nature of knowledge itself
and the question of whether it may exist in an absolute form; and æsthetics,
which is the science of the nature of and the reactions awakened by the
beautiful, the harmonious, the elegant, and the noble.
Plato regarded philosophy as
the greatest good ever imparted by Divinity to man. In the twentieth century,
however, it has become a ponderous and complicated structure of arbitrary and
irreconcilable notions--yet each substantiated by almost incontestible logic.
The lofty theorems of the old Academy which Iamblichus likened to the nectar
and ambrosia of the gods have been so adulterated by opinion--which Heraclitus
declared to be a falling sickness of the mind--that the heavenly mead would
now be quite unrecognizable to this great Neo-Platonist. Convincing evidence
of the increasing superficiality of modern scientific and philosophic thought
is its persistent drift towards materialism. When the great astronomer Laplace
was asked by Napoleon why he had not mentioned God in his Traité de la
Mécanique Céleste, the mathematician naively replied: "Sire, I had no need
for that hypothesis!"
In his treatise on Atheism, Sir
Francis Bacon tersely summarizes the situation thus: "A little philosophy
inclineth man's mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds
about to religion." The Metaphysics of Aristotle opens with these words: "All
men naturally desire to know." To satisfy this common urge the unfolding human
intellect has explored the extremities of imaginable space without and the
extremities of imaginable self within, seeking to estimate the relationship
between the one and the all; the effect and the cause; Nature and the
groundwork of Nature; the mind and the source of the mind; the spirit and the
substance of the spirit; the illusion and the reality.
An ancient philosopher once
said: "He who has not even a knowledge of common things is a brute among men.
He who has an accurate knowledge of human concerns alone is a man among
brutes. But he who knows all that can be known by intellectual energy, is a
God among men." Man's status in the natural world is determined, therefore, by
the quality of his thinking. He whose mind is enslaved to his bestial
instincts is philosophically not superior to the brute-, he whose rational
faculties ponder human affairs is a man; and he whose intellect is elevated to
the consideration of divine realities is already a demigod, for his being
partakes of the luminosity with which his reason has brought him into
proximity. In his encomium of "the science of sciences" Cicero is led to
exclaim: "O philosophy, life's guide! O searcher--out of virtue and expeller
of vices! What could we and every age of men have been without thee? Thou hast
produced cities; thou hast called men scattered about into the social
enjoyment of life."
In this age the word
philosophy has little meaning unless accompanied by some other qualifying
term. The body of philosophy has been broken up into numerous isms more
or less antagonistic, which have become so concerned with the effort to
disprove each other's fallacies that the sublimer issues of divine order and
human destiny have suffered deplorable neglect. The ideal function of
philosophy is to serve as the stabilizing influence in human thought. By
virtue of its intrinsic nature it should prevent man from ever establishing
unreasonable codes of life. Philosophers themselves, however, have frustrated
the ends of philosophy by exceeding in their woolgathering those untrained
minds whom they are supposed to lead in the straight and narrow path of
rational thinking. To list and classify any but the more important of the now
recognized schools of philosophy is beyond the space limitations of this
volume. The vast area of speculation covered by philosophy will be appreciated
best after a brief consideration of a few of the outstanding systems of
philosophic discipline which have swayed the world of thought during the last
twenty-six centuries. The Greek school of philosophy had its inception with
the seven immortalized thinkers upon whom was first conferred the appellation
of Sophos, "the wise." According to Diogenes Laertius, these were
Thales, Solon, Chilon, Pittacus, Bias, Cleobulus, and Periander. Water was
conceived by Thales to be the primal principle or element, upon which the
earth floated like a ship, and earthquakes were the result of disturbances in
this universal sea. Since Thales was an Ionian, the school perpetuating his
tenets became known as the Ionic. He died in 546 B.C., and was succeeded by
Anaximander, who in turn was followed by Anaximenes, Anaxagoras, and Archelaus,
with whom the Ionic school ended. Anaximander, differing from his master
Thales, declared measureless and indefinable infinity to be the principle from
which all things were generated. Anaximenes asserted air to be the first
element of the universe; that souls and even the Deity itself were composed of
it.
Anaxagoras (whose doctrine
savors of atomism) held God to be an infinite self-moving mind; that this
divine infinite Mind, not
BABBITT'S ATOM.
From Babbitt's Principles of
Light and Color.
Since the postulation of the
atomic theory by Democritus, many efforts have been made to determine the
structure of atoms and the method by which they unite to form various
elements, Even science has not refrained from entering this field of
speculation and presents for consideration most detailed and elaborate
representations of these minute bodies. By far the most remarkable conception
of the atom evolved during the last century is that produced by the genius of
Dr. Edwin D. Babbitt and which is reproduced herewith. The diagram is
self-explanatory. It must be borne in mind that this apparently massive
structure is actually s minute as to defy analysis. Not only did Dr. Babbitt
create this form of the atom but he also contrived a method whereby these
particles could be grouped together in an orderly manner and thus result in
the formation of molecular bodies.
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inclosed in any body, is the
efficient cause of all things; out of the infinite matter consisting of
similar parts, everything being made according to its species by the divine
mind, who when all things were at first confusedly mingled together, came and
reduced them to order." Archelaus declared the principle of all things to be
twofold: mind (which was incorporeal) and air (which was corporeal), the
rarefaction and condensation of the latter resulting in fire and water
respectively. The stars were conceived by Archelaus to be burning iron places.
Heraclitus (who lived 536-470 B.C. and is sometimes included in the Ionic
school) in his doctrine of change and eternal flux asserted fire to be the
first element and also the state into which the world would ultimately be
reabsorbed. The soul of the world he regarded as an exhalation from its humid
parts, and he declared the ebb and flow of the sea to be caused by the sun.
After Pythagoras of Samos, its
founder, the Italic or Pythagorean school numbers among its most
distinguished representatives Empedocles, Epicharmus, Archytas, Alcmæon,
Hippasus, Philolaus, and Eudoxus. Pythagoras (580-500? B.C.) conceived
mathematics to be the most sacred and exact of all the sciences, and demanded
of all who came to him for study a familiarity with arithmetic, music,
astronomy, and geometry. He laid special emphasis upon the philosophic life
as a prerequisite to wisdom. Pythagoras was one of the first teachers to
establish a community wherein all the members were of mutual assistance to one
another in the common attainment of the higher sciences. He also introduced
the discipline of retrospection as essential to the development of the
spiritual mind. Pythagoreanism may be summarized as a system of metaphysical
speculation concerning the relationships between numbers and the causal
agencies of existence. This school also first expounded the theory of
celestial harmonics or "the music of the spheres." John Reuchlin said of
Pythagoras that he taught nothing to his disciples before the discipline of
silence, silence being the first rudiment of contemplation. In his Sophist,
Aristotle credits Empedocles with the discovery of rhetoric. Both Pythagoras
and Empedocles accepted the theory of transmigration, the latter saying: "A
boy I was, then did a maid become; a plant, bird, fish, and in the vast sea
swum." Archytas is credited with invention of the screw and the crane.
Pleasure he declared to be a pestilence because it was opposed to the
temperance of the mind; he considered a man without deceit to be as rare as a
fish without bones.
The Eleatic sect was
founded by Xenophanes (570-480 B.C.), who was conspicuous for his attacks upon
the cosmologic and theogonic fables of Homer and Hesiod. Xenophanes declared
that God was "one and incorporeal, in substance and figure round, in no way
resembling man; that He is all sight and all hearing, but breathes not; that
He is all things, the mind and wisdom, not generate but eternal, impassible,
immutable, and rational." Xenophanes believed that all existing things were
eternal, that the world was without beginning or end, and that everything
which was generated was subject to corruption. He lived to great age and is
said to have buried his sons with his own hands. Parmenides studied under
Xenophanes, but never entirely subscribed to his doctrines. Parmenides
declared the senses to be uncertain and reason the only criterion of truth. He
first asserted the earth to be round and also divided its surface into zones
of hear and cold.
Melissus, who is included in
the Eleatic school, held many opinions in common with Parmenides. He declared
the universe to be immovable because, occupying all space, there was no place
to which it could be moved. He further rejected the theory of a vacuum in
space. Zeno of Elea also maintained that a vacuum could not exist. Rejecting
the theory of motion, he asserted that there was but one God, who was an
eternal, ungenerated Being. Like Xenophanes, he conceived Deity to be
spherical in shape. Leucippus held the Universe to consist of two parts: one
full and the other a vacuum. From the Infinite a host of minute fragmentary
bodies descended into the vacuum, where, through continual agitation, they
organized themselves into spheres of substance.
The great Democritus to a
certain degree enlarged upon the atomic theory of Leucippus. Democritus
declared the principles of all things to be twofold: atoms and vacuum. Both,
he asserted, are infinite--atoms in number, vacuum in magnitude. Thus all
bodies must be composed of atoms or vacuum. Atoms possessed two properties,
form and size, both characterized by infinite variety. The soul Democritus
also conceived to be atomic in structure and subject to dissolution with the
body. The mind he believed to be composed of spiritual atoms. Aristotle
intimates that Democritus obtained his atomic theory from the Pythagorean
doctrine of the Monad. Among the Eleatics are also included Protagoras
and Anaxarchus.
Socrates (469-399 B.C.), the
founder of the Socratic sect, being fundamentally a Skeptic, did not
force his opinions upon others, but through the medium of questionings caused
each man to give expression to his own philosophy. According to Plutarch,
Socrates conceived every place as appropriate for reaching in that the whole
world was a school of virtue. He held that the soul existed before the body
and, prior to immersion therein, was endowed with all knowledge; that when the
soul entered into the material form it became stupefied, but that by
discourses upon sensible objects it was caused to reawaken and to recover its
original knowledge. On these premises was based his attempt to stimulate the
soul-power through irony and inductive reasoning. It has been said of Socrates
that the sole subject of his philosophy was man. He himself declared
philosophy to be the way of true happiness and its purpose twofold: (1) to
contemplate God, and (2) to abstract the soul from corporeal sense.
The principles of all things he
conceived to be three in number: God, matter, and ideas.
Of God he said: "What He is I know not; what He is not I know." Matter he
defined as the subject of generation and corruption; idea, as an incorruptible
substance--the intellect of God. Wisdom he considered the sum of the virtues.
Among the prominent members of the Socratic sect were Xenophon, Æschines,
Crito, Simon, Glauco, Simmias, and Cebes. Professor Zeller, the great
authority on ancient philosophies, has recently declared the writings of
Xenophon relating to Socrates to be forgeries. When The Clouds of
Aristophanes, a comedy written to ridicule the theories of Socrates, was
first presented, the great Skeptic himself attended the play. During the
performance, which caricatured him seated in a basket high in the air studying
the sun, Socrates rose calmly in his seat, the better to enable the Athenian
spectators to compare his own unprepossessing features with the grotesque mask
worn by the actor impersonating him.
The Elean sect was
founded by Phædo of Elis, a youth of noble family, who was bought from slavery
at the instigation of Socrates and who became his devoted disciple. Plato so
highly admired Phædo's mentality that he named one of the most famous of his
discourses The Phædo. Phædo was succeeded in his school by Plisthenes, who in
turn was followed by Menedemus. Of the doctrines of the Elean sect little is
known. Menedemus is presumed to have been inclined toward the teachings of
Stilpo and the Megarian sect. When Menedemus' opinions were demanded, he
answered that he was free, thus intimating that most men were enslaved to
their opinions. Menedemus was apparently of a somewhat belligerent temperament
and often returned from his lectures in a badly bruised condition. The most
famous of his propositions is stated thus: That which is not the same is
different from that with which it is not the same. This point being admitted,
Menedemus continued: To benefit is not the same as good, therefore good does
not benefit. After the time of Menedemus the Elean sect became known as the
Eretrian. Its exponents denounced all negative propositions and all complex
and abstruse theories, declaring that only affirmative and simple doctrines
could be true.
The Megarian sect was
founded by Euclid of Megara (not the celebrated mathematician), a great
admirer of Socrates. The Athenians passed a law decreeing death to any citizen
of Megara found in the city of Athens. Nothing daunted, Euclid donned woman's
clothing and went at night to study with Socrates. After the cruel death of
their teacher, the disciples of Socrates, fearing a similar fate, fled to
Megara, where they were entertained with great honor by Euclid. The Megarian
school accepted the Socratic doctrine that virtue is wisdom, adding to it the
Eleatic concept that goodness is absolute unity and all change an illusion of
the senses. Euclid maintained that good has no opposite and therefore evil
does not exist. Being asked about the nature of the gods, he declared himself
ignorant of their disposition save that they hated curious persons.
The Megarians are occasionally
included among the dialectic philosophers. Euclid (who died 374? B.C.) was
succeeded in his school by Eubulides, among whose disciples were Alexinus and
Apollonius Cronus. Euphantus, who lived to great age and wrote many tragedies,
was among the foremost followers of Eubulides. Diodorus is usually included in
the Megarian school, having heard Eubulides lecture. According to legend,
Diodorus died of grief because he could not answer instantly certain questions
asked him by Stilpo, at one time master of the Megarian school. Diodorus held
that nothing
PLATO.
From Thomasin's Recuil des
Figures, Groupes, Thermes, Fontaines, Vases et autres Ornaments.
Plato's real name was
Aristocles. When his father brought him to study with Socrates, the great
Skeptic declared that on the previous night he had dreamed of a white swan,
which was an omen that his new disciple was to become one of the world's
illumined. There is a tradition that the immortal Plato was sold as a slave by
the King of Sicily.
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can be moved, since to be moved
it must be taken out of the place in which it is and put into the place where
it is not, which is impossible because all things must always be in the places
where they are.
The Cynics were a sect
founded by Antisthenes of Athens (444-365? B.C.), a disciple of Socrates.
Their doctrine may be described as an extreme individualism which considers
man as existing for himself alone and advocates surrounding him by inharmony,
suffering, and direst need that be may thereby be driven to retire more
completely into his own nature. The Cynics renounced all worldly possessions,
living in the rudest shelters and subsisting upon the coarsest and simplest
food. On the assumption that the gods wanted nothing, the Cynics affirmed that
those whose needs were fewest consequently approached closest to the
divinities. Being asked what he gained by a life of philosophy, Antisthenes
replied that he had learned how to converse with himself.
Diogenes of Sinopis is
remembered chiefly for the tub in the Metroum which for many years served him
as a home. The people of Athens loved the beggar-philosopher, and when a youth
in jest bored holes in the tub, the city presented Diogenes with a new one and
punished the youth. Diogenes believed that nothing in life can be rightly
accomplished without exercitation. He maintained that everything in the world
belongs to the wise, a declaration which he proved by the following logic:
"All things belong to the gods; the gods are friends to wise persons; all
things are common amongst friends; therefore all things belong to the wise."
Among the Cynics are Monimus, Onesicritus, Crates, Metrocles, Hipparchia (who
married Crates), Menippus, and Menedemus.
The Cyrenaic sect,
founded by Aristippus of Cyrene (435-356? B.C.), promulgated the doctrine of
hedonism. Learning of the fame of Socrates, Aristippus journeyed to Athens and
applied himself to the teachings of the great Skeptic. Socrates, pained by the
voluptuous and mercenary tendencies of Aristippus, vainly labored to reform
the young man. Aristippus has the distinction of being consistent in principle
and practice, for he lived in perfect harmony with his philosophy that the
quest of pleasure was the chief purpose of life. The doctrines of the
Cyrenaics may be summarized thus: All that is actually known concerning any
object or condition is the feeling which it awakens in man's own nature. In
the sphere of ethics that which awakens the most pleasant feeling is
consequently to be esteemed as the greatest good. Emotional reactions are
classified as pleasant or gentle, harsh, and mean. The end of pleasant emotion
is pleasure; the end of harsh emotion, grief; the end of mean emotion,
nothing.
Through mental perversity some
men do not desire pleasure. In reality, however, pleasure (especially of a
physical nature) is the true end of existence and exceeds in every way mental
and spiritual enjoyments. Pleasure, furthermore, is limited wholly to the
moment; now is the only time. The past cannot be regarded without regret and
the future cannot be faced without misgiving; therefore neither is conducive
to pleasure. No man should grieve, for grief is the most serious of all
diseases. Nature permits man to do anything he desires; he is limited only by
his own laws and customs. A philosopher is one free from envy, love, and
superstition, and whose days are one long round of pleasure. Indulgence was
thus elevated by Aristippus to the chief position among the virtues. He
further declared philosophers to differ markedly from other men in that they
alone would not change the order of their lives if all the laws of men were
abolished. Among prominent philosophers influenced by the Cyrenaic doctrines
were Hegesias, Anniceris, Theodorus, and Bion.
The sect of the Academic
philosophers instituted by Plato (427-347 B.C.) was divided into three major
parts--the old, the middle, and the new Academy. Among the old Academics were
Speusippus, Zenocrates, Poleman, Crates, and Crantor. Arcesilaus instituted
the middle Academy and Carneades founded the new. Chief among the masters of
Plato was Socrates. Plato traveled widely and was initiated by the Egyptians
into the profundities of Hermetic philosophy. He also derived much from the
doctrines of the Pythagoreans. Cicero describes the threefold constitution of
Platonic philosophy as comprising ethics, physics, and dialectics. Plato
defined good as threefold in character: good in the soul, expressed through
the virtues; good in the body, expressed through the symmetry and endurance of
the parts; and good in the external world, expressed through social position
and companionship. In The Book of Speusippus on Platonic Definitions,
that great Platonist thus defines God: "A being that lives immortally by means
of Himself alone, sufficing for His own blessedness, the eternal Essence,
cause of His own goodness. According to Plato, the One is the term most
suitable for defining the Absolute, since the whole precedes the parts and
diversity is dependent on unity, but unity not on diversity. The One,
moreover, is before being, for to be is an attribute or condition of
the One.
Platonic philosophy is based
upon the postulation of three orders of being: that which moves unmoved, that
which is self-moved, and that which is moved. That which is immovable but
moves is anterior to that which is self-moved, which likewise is anterior to
that which it moves. That in which motion is inherent cannot be separated from
its motive power; it is therefore incapable of dissolution. Of such nature are
the immortals. That which has motion imparted to it from another can be
separated from the source of its an animating principle; it is therefore
subject to dissolution. Of such nature are mortal beings. Superior to both the
mortals and the immortals is that condition which continually moves yet itself
is unmoved. To this constitution the power of abidance is inherent; it is
therefore the Divine Permanence upon which all things are established. Being
nobler even than self-motion, the unmoved Mover is the first of all dignities.
The Platonic discipline was founded upon the theory that learning is really
reminiscence, or the bringing into objectivity of knowledge formerly acquired
by the soul in a previous state of existence. At the entrance of the Platonic
school in the Academy were written the words: "Let none ignorant of geometry
enter here."
After the death of Plato, his
disciples separated into two groups. One, the Academics, continued to
meet in the Academy where once he had presided; the other, the Peripatetics,
removed to the Lyceum under the leadership of Aristotle (384-322 B.C.). Plato
recognized Aristotle as his greatest disciple and, according to Philoponus,
referred to him as "the mind of the school." If Aristotle were absent from the
lectures, Plato would say: "The intellect is not here." Of the prodigious
genius of Aristotle, Thomas Taylor writes in his introduction to The
Metaphysics:
"When we consider that he was
not only well acquainted with every science, as his works abundantly evince,
but that he wrote on almost every subject which is comprehended in the circle
of human knowledge, and this with matchless accuracy and skill, we know not
which to admire most, the penetration or extent of his mind."
THE PROBLEM OF DIVERSITY.
From Kircher's Ars Magna
Sciendi.
In the above diagram Kircher
arranges eighteen objects in two vertical columns and then determines he
number of arrangements in which they can be combined. By the same method
Kircher further estimates that fifty objects may be arranged in
1,273,726,838,815,420,339,851,343,083,767,005,515,293,749,454,795,408,000,000,000,000
combinations. From this it will be evident that infinite diversity is
possible, for the countless parts of the universe may be related to each other
in an incalculable number of ways; and through the various combinations of
these limitless subdivisions of being, infinite individuality and infinite
variety must inevitably result. Thus it is further evident that life can never
become monotonous or exhaust the possibilities of variety.
p. 16
[paragraph
continues] Of the philosophy of Aristotle, the same
author says: "The end of Aristotle's moral philosophy is perfection through
the virtues, and the end of his contemplative philosophy an union with the one
principle of all things."
Aristotle conceived philosophy
to be twofold: practical and theoretical. Practical philosophy embraced ethics
and politics; theoretical philosophy, physics and logic. Metaphysics he
considered to be the science concerning that substance which has the principle
of motion and rest inherent to itself. To Aristotle the soul is that by which
man first lives, feels, and understands. Hence to the soul he assigned three
faculties: nutritive, sensitive, and intellective. He further considered the
soul to be twofold--rational and irrational--and in some particulars elevated
the sense perceptions above the mind. Aristotle defined wisdom as the science
of first Causes. The four major divisions of his philosophy are dialectics,
physics, ethics, and metaphysics. God is defined as the First Mover, the Best
of beings, an immovable Substance, separate from sensible things, void of
corporeal quantity, without parts and indivisible. Platonism is based upon
a priori reasoning; Aristotelianism upon a posteriori reasoning.
Aristotle taught his pupil, Alexander the Great, to feel that if he had not
done a good deed he had not reigned that day. Among his followers were
Theophrastus, Strato, Lyco, Aristo, Critolaus, and Diodorus.
Of Skepticism as
propounded by Pyrrho of Elis (365-275 B.C.) and by Timon, Sextus Empiricus
said that those who seek must find or deny they have found or can find, or
persevere in the inquiry. Those who suppose they have found truth are called
Dogmatists; those who think it incomprehensible are the Academics;
those who still seek are the Skeptics. The attitude of Skepticism
towards the knowable is summed up by Sextus Empiricus in the following words:
"But the chief ground of Skepticism is that to every reason there is an
opposite reason equivalent, which makes us forbear to dogmatize." The Skeptics
were strongly opposed to the Dogmatists and were agnostic in that they held
the accepted theories regarding Deity to be self-contradictory and
undemonstrable. "How," asked the Skeptic, "can we have indubitate knowledge of
God, knowing not His substance, form or place; for, while philosophers
disagree irreconcilably on these points, their conclusions cannot be
considered as
undoubtedly true?" Since absolute knowledge was considered unattainable,
the Skeptics declared the end of their discipline to be: "In opinionatives,
indisturbance; in impulsives, moderation; and in disquietives, suspension."
The sect of the Stoics
was founded by Zeno (340-265 B.C.), the Cittiean, who studied under Crates the
Cynic, from which sect the Stoics had their origin. Zeno was succeeded by
Cleanthes, Chrysippus, Zeno of Tarsis, Diogenes, Antipater, Panætius, and
Posidonius. Most famous of the Roman Stoics are Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius.
The Stoics were essentially pantheists, since they maintained that as there is
nothing better than the world, the world is God. Zeno declared that the reason
of the world is diffused throughout it as seed. Stoicism is a materialistic
philosophy, enjoining voluntary resignation to natural law. Chrysippus
maintained that good and evil being contrary, both are necessary since each
sustains the other. The soul was regarded as a body distributed throughout the
physical form and subject to dissolution with it. Though some of the Stoics
held that wisdom prolonged the existence of the soul, actual immortality is
not included in their tenets. The soul was said to be composed of eight parts:
the five senses, the generative power, the vocal power, and an eighth, or
hegemonic, part. Nature was defined as God mixed throughout the substance of
the world. All things were looked upon as bodies either corporeal or
incorporeal.
Meekness marked the attitude of
the Stoic philosopher. While Diogenes was delivering a discourse against
anger, one of his listeners spat contemptuously in his face. Receiving the
insult with humility, the great Stoic was moved to retort: "I am not angry,
but am in doubt whether I ought to be so or not!"
Epicurus of Samos (341-270
B.C.) was the founder of the Epicurean sect, which in many respects
resembles the Cyrenaic but is higher in its ethical standards. The Epicureans
also posited pleasure as the most desirable state, but conceived it to be a
grave and dignified state achieved through renunciation of those mental and
emotional inconstancies which are productive of pain and sorrow. Epicurus held
that as the pains of the mind and soul are more grievous than those of the
body, so the joys of the mind and soul exceed those of the body. The Cyrenaics
asserted pleasure to be dependent upon action or motion; the Epicureans
claimed rest or lack of action to be equally productive of pleasure. Epicurus
accepted the philosophy of Democritus concerning the nature of atoms and based
his physics upon this theory. The Epicurean philosophy may be summed up in
four canons:
"(1) Sense is never deceived;
and therefore every sensation and every perception of an appearance is true.
(2) Opinion follows upon sense and is superadded to sensation, and capable of
truth or falsehood, (3) All opinion attested, or not contradicted by the
evidence of sense, is true. (4) An opinion contradicted, or not attested by
the evidence of sense, is false." Among the Epicureans of note were Metrodorus
of Lampsacus, Zeno of Sidon, and Phædrus.
Eclecticism may be
defined as the practice of choosing apparently irreconcilable doctrines from
antagonistic schools and constructing therefrom a composite philosophic system
in harmony with the convictions of the eclectic himself. Eclecticism can
scarcely be considered philosophically or logically sound, for as individual
schools arrive at their conclusions by different methods of reasoning, so the
philosophic product of fragments from these schools must necessarily be built
upon the foundation of conflicting premises. Eclecticism, accordingly, has
been designated the layman's cult. In the Roman Empire little thought was
devoted to philosophic theory; consequently most of its thinkers were of the
eclectic type. Cicero is the outstanding example of early Eclecticism, for his
writings are a veritable potpourri of invaluable fragments from earlier
schools of thought. Eclecticism appears to have had its inception at the
moment when men first doubted the possibility of discovering ultimate truth.
Observing all so-called knowledge to be mere opinion at best, the less
studious furthermore concluded that the wiser course to pursue was to accept
that which appeared to be the most reasonable of the teachings of any school
or individual. From this practice, however, arose a pseudo-broadmindedness
devoid of the element of preciseness found in true logic and philosophy.
The Neo-Pythagorean
school flourished in Alexandria during the first century of the Christian Era.
Only two names stand out in connection with it--Apollonius of Tyana and
Moderatus of Gades. Neo-Pythagoreanism is a link between the older pagan
philosophies and Neo-Platonism. Like the former, it contained many exact
elements of thought derived from Pythagoras and Plato; like the latter, it
emphasized metaphysical speculation and ascetic habits. A striking similarity
has been observed by several authors between Neo-Pythagoreanism and the
doctrines of the Essenes. Special emphasis was laid upon the mystery of
numbers, and it is possible that the Neo-Pythagoreans had a far wider
knowledge of the true teachings of Pythagoras than is available today. Even in
the first century Pythagoras was regarded more as a god than a man, and the
revival of his philosophy was resorted to apparently in the hope that his name
would stimulate interest in the deeper systems of learning. But Greek
philosophy had passed the zenith of its splendor; the mass of humanity was
awakening to the importance of physical life and physical phenomena. The
emphasis upon earthly affairs which began to assert itself later reached
maturity of expression in twentieth century materialism and commercialism,
ÆNEAS AT THE GATE OF HELL.
From Virgil's Æneid.
(Dryden's translation.)
Virgil describes part of the ritual of a
Greek Mystery--possibly the Eleusinian--in his account of the descent of Æneas,
to the gate of hell under the guidance of the Sibyl. Of that part of the
ritual portrayed above the immortal poet writes:
"Full in the midst of this infernal
Road,
An Elm displays her dusky Arms abroad;
The God of Sleep there hides his heavy Head
And empty Dreams on ev'ry Leaf are spread.
Of various Forms, unnumber'd Specters more;
Centaurs, and double Shapes, besiege the Door:
Before the Passage horrid Hydra stands,
And Briareus with all his hundred Hands:
Gorgons, Geryon with his triple Frame;
And vain Chimæra vomits empty Flame.
The Chief unsheath'd his shining Steel, prepar'd,
Tho seiz'd with sudden Fear, to force the Guard.
Off'ring his brandish'd Weapon at their Face,
Had not the Sibyl stop'd his eager Pace,
And told him what those empty Phantoms were;
Forms without Bodies, and impassive Air."
p. 17
even though Neo-Platonism was
to intervene and many centuries pass before this emphasis took definite form.
Although Ammonius Saccus was
long believed to be the founder of Neo-Platonism, the school had its
true beginning in Plotinus (A.D. 204-269?). Prominent among the Neo-Platonists
of Alexandria, Syria, Rome, and Athens were Porphyry, Iamblichus, Sallustius,
the Emperor Julian, Plutarch, and Proclus. Neo-Platonism was the supreme
effort of decadent pagandom to publish and thus preserve for posterity its
secret (or unwritten) doctrine. In its teachings ancient idealism found its
most perfect expression. Neo-Platonism was concerned almost exclusively with
the problems of higher metaphysics. It recognized the existence of a secret
and all-important doctrine which from the time of the earliest civilizations
had been concealed within the rituals, symbols, and allegories of religions
and philosophies. To the mind unacquainted with its fundamental tenets,
Neo-Platonism may appear to be a mass of speculations interspersed with
extravagant flights of fancy. Such a viewpoint, however, ignores the
institutions of the Mysteries--those secret schools into whose profundities of
idealism nearly all of the first philosophers of antiquity were initiated.
When the physical body of pagan
thought collapsed, an attempt was made to resurrect the form by instilling new
life into it by the unveiling of its mystical truths. This effort apparently
was barren of results. Despite the antagonism, however, between pristine
Christianity and Neo-Platonism many basic tenets of the latter were accepted
by the former and woven into the fabric of Patristic philosophy. Briefly
described, Neo-Platonism is a philosophic code which conceives every physical
or concrete body of doctrine to be merely the shell of a spiritual verity
which may be discovered through meditation and certain exercises of a mystic
nature. In comparison to the esoteric spiritual truths which they contain, the
corporeal bodies of religion and philosophy were considered relatively of
little value. Likewise, no emphasis was placed upon the material sciences.
The term Patristic is
employed to designate the philosophy of the Fathers of the early Christian
Church. Patristic philosophy is divided into two general epochs: ante-Nicene
and post-Nicene. The ante-Nicene period in the main was devoted to attacks
upon paganism and to apologies and defenses of Christianity. The entire
structure of pagan philosophy was assailed and the dictates of faith elevated
above those of reason. In some instances efforts were made to reconcile the
evident truths of paganism with Christian revelation. Eminent among the
ante-Nicene Fathers were St. Irenæus, Clement of Alexandria, and Justin
Martyr. In the post-Nicene period more emphasis was placed upon the unfoldment
of Christian philosophy along Platonic and Neo-Platonic lines, resulting in
the appearance of many strange documents of a lengthy, rambling, and ambiguous
nature, nearly all of which were philosophically unsound. The post-Nicene
philosophers included Athanasius, Gregory of Nyssa, and Cyril of Alexandria.
The Patristic school is notable for its emphasis upon the supremacy of man
throughout the universe. Man was conceived to be a separate and divine
creation--the crowning achievement of Deity and an exception to the suzerainty
of natural law. To the Patristics it was inconceivable that there should ever
exist another creature so noble, so fortunate, or so able as man, for whose
sole benefit and edification all the kingdoms of Nature were primarily
created.
Patristic philosophy culminated
in Augustinianism, which may best be defined as Christian Platonism.
Opposing the Pelasgian doctrine that man is the author of his own
salvation, Augustinianism elevated the church and its dogmas to a position of
absolute infallibility--a position which it successfully maintained until the
Reformation. Gnosticism, a system of emanationism, interpreting
Christianity in terms of Greek, Egyptian, and Persian metaphysics, appeared in
the latter part of the first century of the Christian Era. Practically all the
information extant regarding the Gnostics and their doctrines, stigmatized as
heresy by the ante-Nicene Church Fathers, is derived from the accusations made
against them, particularly from the writings of St. Irenæus. In the third
century appeared Manichæism, a dualistic system of Persian origin,
which taught that Good and Evil were forever contending for universal
supremacy. In Manichæism, Christ is conceived to be the Principle of redeeming
Good in contradistinction to the man Jesus, who was viewed as an evil
personality.
The death of Boethius in the
sixth century marked the close of the ancient Greek school of philosophy. The
ninth century saw the rise of the new school of Scholasticism, which
sought to reconcile philosophy with theology. Representative of the main
divisions of the Scholastic school were the Eclecticism of John of
Salisbury, the Mysticism of Bernard of Clairvaux and St. Bonaventura,
the Rationalism of Peter Abelard, and the pantheistic Mysticism
of Meister Eckhart. Among the Arabian Aristotelians were Avicenna and
Averroes. The zenith of Scholasticism was reached with the advent of Albertus
Magnus and his illustrious disciple, St. Thomas Aquinas. Thomism (the
philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas, sometimes referred to as the Christian
Aristotle) sought to reconcile the various factions of the Scholastic school.
Thomism was basically Aristotelian with the added concept that faith is a
projection of reason.
Scotism, or the doctrine
of Voluntarism promulgated by Joannes Duns Scotus, a Franciscan
Scholastic, emphasized the power and efficacy of the individual will, as
opposed to Thomism. The outstanding characteristic of Scholasticism was its
frantic effort to cast all European thought in an Aristotelian mold.
Eventually the Schoolmen descended to the level of mere wordmongers who picked
the words of Aristotle so clean that nothing but the bones remained. It was
this decadent school of meaningless verbiage against which Sir Francis Bacon
directed his bitter shafts of irony and which he relegated to the potter's
field of discarded notions.
The Baconian, or inductive,
system of reasoning (whereby facts are arrived at by a process of observation
and verified by experimentation) cleared the way for the schools of modern
science. Bacon was followed by Thomas Hobbes (for some time his secretary),
who held mathematics to be the only exact science and thought to be
essentially a mathematical process. Hobbes declared matter to be the only
reality, and scientific investigation to be limited to the study of bodies,
the phenomena relative to their probable causes, and the consequences which
flow from them under every variety of circumstance. Hobbes laid special stress
upon the significance of words, declaring understanding to be the faculty of
perceiving the relationship between words and the objects for which they
stand.
Having broken away from the
scholastic and theological schools, Post-Reformation, or modern,
philosophy experienced a most prolific growth along many diverse lines.
According to Humanism, man is the measure of all things; Rationalism
makes the reasoning faculties the basis of all knowledge; Political
Philosophy holds that man must comprehend his natural, social, and
national privileges; Empiricism declares that alone to be true which is
demonstrable by experiment or experience; Moralism emphasizes the
necessity of right conduct as a fundamental philosophic tenet; Idealism
asserts the realities of the universe to be superphysical--either mental or
psychical; Realism, the reverse; and Phenomenalism restricts
knowledge to facts or events which can be scientifically described or
explained. The most recent developments in the field of philosophic thought
are Behaviorism and Neo-Realism. The former estimates the
intrinsic characteristics through an analysis of behavior; the latter may be
summed up as the total extinction of idealism.
Baruch de Spinoza, the eminent
Dutch philosopher, conceived God to be a substance absolutely self-existent
and needing no other conception besides itself to render it complete and
intelligible. The nature of this Being was held by Spinoza to be
comprehensible only through its attributes, which are extension and thought:
these combine
THE PTOLEMAIC SCHEME OF THE UNIVERSE.
From an old print, courtesy of
Carl Oscar Borg.
In ridiculing the geocentric
system of astronomy expounded by Claudius Ptolemy, modem astronomers have
overlooked the philosophic key to the Ptolemaic system. The universe of
Ptolemy is a diagrammatic representation of the relationships existing between
the various divine and elemental parts of every creature, and is not concerned
with astronomy as that science is now comprehended. In the above figure,
special attention is called to the three circles of zodiacs surrounding the
orbits of the planets. These zodiacs represent the threefold spiritual
constitution of the universe. The orbits of the planets are the Governors of
the World and the four elemental spheres in the center represent the physical
constitution of both man and the universe, Ptolemy's scheme of the universe is
simply a cross section of the universal aura, the planets and elements to
which he refers having no relation to those recognized by modern astronomers.
p. 18
to form an endless variety of
aspects or modes. The mind of man is one of the modes of
infinite thought; the body of man one of the modes of infinite extension.
Through reason man is enabled to elevate himself above the illusionary world
of the senses and find eternal repose in perfect union with the Divine
Essence. Spinoza, it has been said, deprived God of all personality, making
Deity synonymous with the universe.
German philosophy had its
inception with Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz, whose theories are permeated
with the qualities of optimism and idealism. Leibnitz's criteria of
sufficient reason revealed to him the insufficiency of Descartes' theory
of extension, and he therefore concluded that substance itself contained an
inherent power in the form of an incalculable number of separate and
all-sufficient units. Matter reduced to its ultimate particles ceases to exist
as a substantial body, being resolved into a mass of immaterial ideas or
metaphysical units of power, to which Leibnitz applied the term monad.
Thus the universe is composed of an infinite number of separate monadic
entities unfolding spontaneously through the objectification of innate active
qualities. All things are conceived as consisting of single monads of varying
magnitudes or of aggregations of these bodies, which may exist as physical,
emotional, mental, or spiritual substances. God is the first and greatest
Monad; the spirit of man is an awakened monad in contradistinction to the
lower kingdoms whose governing monadic powers are in a semi-dormant state.
Though a product of the
Leibnitzian-Wolfian school, Immanuel Kant, like Locke, dedicated himself to
investigation of the powers and limits of human understanding. The result was
his critical philosophy, embracing the critique of pure reason, the critique
of practical reason, and the critique of judgment. Dr. W. J. Durant sums up
Kant's philosophy in the concise statement that he rescued mind from matter.
The mind Kant conceived to be the selector and coordinator of all perceptions,
which in turn are the result of sensations grouping themselves about some
external object. In the classification of sensations and ideas the mind
employs certain categories: of sense, time and space; of understanding,
quality, relation, modality, and causation; and the unity of apperception.
Being subject to mathematical laws, time and space are considered absolute and
sufficient bases for exact thinking. Kant's practical reason declared that
while the nature of noumenon could never be comprehended by the reason,
the fact of morality proves the existence of three necessary postulates: free
will, immortality, and God. In the critique of judgment Kant demonstrates the
union of the noumenon and the phenomenon in art and biological
evolution. German superintellectualism is the outgrowth of an
overemphasis of Kant's theory of the autocratic supremacy of the mind over
sensation and thought. The philosophy of Johann Gottlieb Fichte was a
projection of Kant's philosophy, wherein he attempted to unite Kant's
practical reason with his pure reason. Fichte held that the known is merely
the contents of the consciousness of the knower, and that nothing can exist to
the knower until it becomes part of those contents. Nothing is actually real,
therefore, except the facts of one's own mental experience.
Recognizing the necessity of
certain objective realities, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling, who
succeeded Fichte in the chair of philosophy at Jena, first employed the
doctrine of identity as the groundwork for a complete system of philosophy.
Whereas Fichte regarded self as the Absolute, von Schelling conceived infinite
and eternal Mind to be the all-pervading Cause. Realization of the Absolute is
made possible by intellectual intuition which, being a superior or spiritual
sense, is able to dissociate itself from both subject and object. Kant's
categories of space and time von Schelling conceived to be positive and
negative respectively, and material existence the result of the reciprocal
action of these two expressions. Von Schelling also held that the Absolute in
its process of self-development proceeds according to a law or rhythm
consisting of three movements. The first, a reflective movement, is the
attempt of the Infinite to embody itself in the finite. The second, that of
subsumption, is the attempt of the Absolute to return to the Infinite after
involvement in the finite. The third, that of reason, is the neutral point
wherein the two former movements are blended.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
considered the intellectual intuition of von Schelling to be philosophically
unsound and hence turned his attention to the establishment of a system of
philosophy based upon pure logic. Of Hegel it has been said that he began with
nothing and showed with logical precision how everything had proceeded from it
in logical order. Hegel elevated logic to a position of supreme importance, in
fact as a quality of the Absolute itself. God he conceived to be a process of
unfolding which never attains to the condition of unfoldment. In like manner,
thought is without either beginning or end. Hegel further believed that all
things owe their existence to their opposites and that all opposites are
actually identical. Thus the only existence is the relationship of opposites
to each other, through whose combinations new elements are produced. As the
Divine Mind is an eternal process of thought never accomplished, Hegel assails
the very foundation of theism and his philosophy limits immortality to the
everflowing Deity alone. Evolution is consequently the never-ending flow of
Divine Consciousness out of itself; all creation, though continually moving,
never arrives at any state other than that of ceaseless flow.
Johann Friedrich Herbart's
philosophy was a realistic reaction from the idealism of Fichte and von
Schelling. To Herbart the true basis of philosophy was the great mass of
phenomena continually moving through the human mind. Examination of phenomena,
however, demonstrates that a great part of it is unreal, at least incapable of
supplying the mind with actual truth. To correct the false impressions caused
by phenomena and discover reality, Herbart believed it necessary to resolve
phenomena into separate elements, for reality exists in the elements and not
in the whole. He stated that objects can be classified by three general terms:
thing, matter, and mind; the first a unit of several properties, the second an
existing object, the third a self-conscious being. All three notions give
rise, however, to certain contradictions, with whose solution Herbart is
primarily concerned. For example, consider matter. Though capable of filling
space, if reduced to its ultimate state it consists of incomprehensibly minute
units of divine energy occupying no physical space whatsoever.
The true subject of Arthur
Schopenhauer's philosophy is the will; the object of his philosophy is the
elevation of the mind to the point where it is capable of controlling the
will. Schopenhauer likens the will to a strong blind man who carries on his
shoulders the intellect, which is a weak lame man possessing the power of
sight. The will is the tireless cause of manifestation and every part of
Nature the product of will. The brain is the product of the will to know; the
hand the product of the will to grasp. The entire intellectual and emotional
constitutions of man are subservient to the will and are largely concerned
with the effort to justify the dictates of the will. Thus the mind creates
elaborate systems of thought simply to prove the necessity of the thing
willed. Genius, however, represents the state wherein the intellect has gained
supremacy over the will and the life is ruled by reason and not by impulse.
The strength of Christianity, said Schopenhauer, lay in its pessimism and
conquest of individual will. His own religious viewpoints resembled closely
the Buddhistic. To him Nirvana represented the subjugation of will. Life--the
manifestation of the blind will to live--he viewed as a misfortune, claiming
that the true philosopher was one who, recognizing the wisdom of death,
resisted the inherent urge to reproduce his kind.
THE TREE OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY.
From Hort's The New Pantheon.
Before a proper appreciation of
the deeper scientific aspects of Greek mythology is possible, it is necessary
to organize the Greek pantheon and arrange its gods, goddesses, and various
superhuman hierarchies in concatenated order. Proclus, the great
Neo-Platonist, in his commentaries on the theology of Plato, gives an
invaluable key to the sequence of the various deities in relation to the First
Cause and the inferior powers emanating from themselves. When thus arranged,
the divine hierarchies may be likened to the branches of a great tree. The
roots of this tree are firmly imbedded in Unknowable Being. The trunk and
larger branches of the tree symbolize the superior gods; the twigs and leaves,
the innumerable existences dependent upon the first and unchanging Power.
p. 19
Of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
it has been said that his peculiar contribution to the cause of human hope was
the glad tidings that God had died of pity! The outstanding features of
Nietzsche's philosophy are his doctrine of eternal recurrence and the extreme
emphasis placed by him upon the will to power--a projection of
Schopenhauer's will to live. Nietzsche believed the purpose of existence to be
the production of a type of all-powerful individual, designated by him the
superman. This superman was the product of careful culturing, for if not
separated forcibly from the mass and consecrated to the production of power,
the individual would sink back to the level of the deadly mediocre. Love,
Nietzsche said, should be sacrificed to the production of the superman and
those only should marry who are best fitted to produce this outstanding type.
Nietzsche also believed in the rule of the aristocracy, both blood and
breeding being essential to the establishment of this superior type.
Nietzsche's doctrine did not liberate the masses; it rather placed over them
supermen for whom their inferior brothers and sisters should be perfectly
reconciled to die. Ethically and politically, the superman was a law unto
himself. To those who understand the true meaning of power to be virtue,
self-control, and truth, the ideality behind Nietzsche's theory is apparent.
To the superficial, however, it is a philosophy heartless and calculating,
concerned solely with the survival of the fittest.
Of the other German schools of
philosophic thought, limitations of space preclude detailed mention. The more
recent developments of the German school are Freudianism and
Relativism (often called the Einstein theory). The former is a system of
psychoanalysis through psychopathic and neurological phenomena; the latter
attacks the accuracy of mechanical principles dependent upon the present
theory of velocity.
René Descartes stands at the
head of the French school of philosophy and shares with Sir Francis Bacon the
honor of founding the systems of modern science and philosophy. As Bacon based
his conclusions upon observation of external things, so Descartes founded his
metaphysical philosophy upon observation of internal things. Cartesianism
(the philosophy of Descartes) first eliminates all things and then replaces as
fundamental those premises without which existence is impossible. Descartes
defined an idea as that which fills the mind when we conceive a thing. The
truth of an idea must be determined by the criteria of clarity and
distinctness. Hence Descartes, held that a clear and distinct idea must be
true. Descartes has the distinction also of evolving his own philosophy
without recourse to authority. Consequently his conclusions are built up from
the simplest of premises and grow in complexity as the structure of his
philosophy takes form.
The Positive philosophy
of Auguste Comte is based upon the theory that the human intellect develops
through three stages of thought. The first and lowest stage is theological;
the second, metaphysical; and the third and highest, positive. Thus theology
and metaphysics are the feeble intellectual efforts of humanity's child-mind
and positivism is the mental expression of the adult intellect. In his
Cours de Philosophie positive, Comte writes:
"In the final, the positive
state, the mind has given over the vain search after Absolute notions, the
origin and destination of the universe, and the causes of phenomena, and
applies itself to the study of their laws,--that is, their invariable
relations of succession and resemblance. Reasoning and observation, duly
combined, are the means of this knowledge." Comte's theory is described as an
"enormous system of materialism." According to Comte, it was formerly said
that the heavens declare the glory of God, but now they only recount the glory
of Newton and Laplace.
Among the French schools of
philosophy are Traditionalism (often applied to Christianity), which
esteems tradition as the proper foundation for philosophy; the Sociological
school, which regards humanity as one vast social organism; the
Encyclopedists, whose efforts to classify knowledge according to the
Baconian system revolutionized European thought; Voltairism, which
assailed the divine origin of the Christian faith and adopted an attitude of
extreme skepticism toward all matters pertaining to theology; and
Neo-Criticism, a French revision of the doctrines of Immanuel Kant.
Henri Bergson, the
intuitionalist, undoubtedly the greatest living French philosopher, presents a
theory of mystic anti-intellectualism founded upon the premise of creative
evolution, His rapid rise to popularity is due to his appeal to the finer
sentiments in human nature, which rebel against the hopelessness and
helplessness of materialistic science and realistic philosophy. Bergson sees
God as life continually struggling against the limitations of matter. He even
conceives the possible victory of life over matter, and in time the
annihilation of death.
Applying the Baconian method to
the mind, John Locke, the great English philosopher, declared that everything
which passes through the mind is a legitimate object of mental philosophy, and
that these mental phenomena are as real and valid as the objects of any other
science. In his investigations of the origin of phenomena Locke departed from
the Baconian requirement that it was first necessary to make a natural history
of facts. The mind was regarded by Locke to be blank until experience is
inscribed upon it. Thus the mind is built up of received impressions plus
reflection. The soul Locke believed to be incapable of apprehension of Deity,
and man's realization or cognition of God to be merely an inference of the
reasoning faculty. David Hume was the most enthusiastic and also the most
powerful of the disciples of Locke.
Attacking Locke's
sensationalism, Bishop George Berkeley substituted for it a philosophy founded
on Locke's fundamental premises but which he developed as a system of
idealism. Berkeley held that ideas are the real objects of knowledge. He
declared it impossible to adduce proof that sensations are occasioned by
material objects; he also attempted to prove that matter has no existence.
Berkeleianism holds that the universe is permeated and governed by mind. Thus
the belief in the existence of material objects is merely a mental condition,
and the objects themselves may well be fabrications of the mind. At the same
time Berkeley considered it worse than insanity to question the accuracy of
the perceptions; for if the power of the perceptive faculties be questioned
man is reduced to a creature incapable of knowing, estimating, or realizing
anything whatsoever.
In the Associationalism
of Hartley and Hume was advanced the theory that the association of ideas is
the fundamental principle of psychology and the explanation for all mental
phenomena. Hartley held that if a sensation be repeated several times there is
a tendency towards its spontaneous repetition, which may be awakened by
association with some other idea even though the object causing the original
reaction be absent. The Utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham, Archdeacon
Paley, and James and John Stuart Mill declares that to be the greatest good
which is the most useful to the greatest number. John Stuart Mill believed
that if it is possible through sensation to secure knowledge of the
properties of things, it is also possible through a higher state of the
mind--that is, intuition or reason--to gain a knowledge of the true substance
of things.
Darwinism is the
doctrine of natural selection and physical evolution. It has been said of
Charles Robert Darwin that he determined to banish spirit altogether from the
universe and make the infinite and omnipresent Mind itself synonymous with the
all-pervading powers of an impersonal Nature. Agnosticism and
Neo-Hegelianism are also noteworthy products of this period of philosophic
thought. The former is the belief that the nature of ultimates is unknowable;
the latter an English and American revival of Hegel's idealism.
Dr. W. J. Durant declares that
Herbert Spencer's Great Work, First Principles, made him almost at once
the most famous philosopher of his time. Spencerianism is a philosophic
positivism which describes evolution as an ever-increasing complexity with
equilibrium as its highest possible state. According to Spencer, life is a
continuous process from homogeneity to heterogeneity and back from
heterogeneity to homogeneity. Life also involves the continual adjustment of
internal relations to external relations. Most famous of all Spencer's
aphorisms is his definition of Deity: "God is infinite intelligence,
infinitely diversified through infinite time and infinite space, manifesting
through an infinitude of ever-evolving individualities." The universality of
the law of evolution was emphasized by Spencer, who applied it not only to the
form but also to the intelligence behind the form. In every manifestation of
being he recognized the fundamental tendency of unfoldment from simplicity to
complexity, observing that when the point of equilibrium is reached it is
A CHRISTIAN TRINITY.
From Hone's Ancient
Mysteries Described.
In an effort to set forth in an
appropriate figure the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, it was necessary to
devise an image in which the three persons--Father, Son, and Holy Ghost--were
separate and yet one. In different parts of Europe may be seen figures similar
to the above, wherein three faces are united in one head. This is a legitimate
method of for to those able to realize the sacred significance of the
threefold head a great mystery is revealed. However, in the presence of such
applications of symbology in Christian art, it is scarcely proper to consider
the philosophers of other faiths as benighted if, like the Hindus, they have a
three-faced Brahma, or, like the Romans, a two-faced Janus.
p. 20
always followed by the process
of dissolution. According to Spencer, however, disintegration took place only
that reintegration might follow upon a higher level of being.
The chief position in the
Italian school of philosophy should be awarded to Giordano Bruno, who, after
enthusiastically accepting Copernicus' theory that the sun is the center of
the solar system, declared the sun to be a star and all the stars to be suns.
In Bruno's time the earth was regarded as the center of all creation.
Consequently when he thus relegated the world and man to an obscure corner in
space the effect was cataclysmic. For the heresy of affirming a multiplicity
of universes and conceiving Cosmos to be so vast that no single creed could
fill it, Bruno paid the forfeit of his life.
Vicoism is a philosophy
based upon the conclusions of Giovanni Battista Vico, who held that God
controls His world not miraculously but through natural law. The laws by which
men rule themselves, Vico declared, issue from a spiritual source within
mankind which is en rapport with the law of the Deity. Hence material
law is of divine origin and reflects the dictates of the Spiritual Father. The
philosophy of Ontologism developed by Vincenzo Gioberti (generally
considered more as a theologian than a philosopher) posits God as the only
being and the origin of all knowledge, knowledge being identical with Deity
itself. God is consequently called Being; all other manifestations are
existences. Truth is to be discovered through reflection upon this mystery.
The most important of modern
Italian philosophers is Benedetto Croce, a Hegelian idealist. Croce conceives
ideas to be the only reality. He is anti-theological in his viewpoints, does
not believe in the immortality of the soul, and seeks to substitute ethics and
aesthetics for religion. Among other branches of Italian philosophy should be
mentioned Sensism (Sensationalism), which posits the sense perceptions
as the sole channels for the reception of knowledge; Criticism, or the
philosophy of accurate judgment; and Neo-Scholasticism, which is a
revival of Thomism encouraged by the Roman Catholic Church.
The two outstanding schools of
American philosophy are Transcendentalism and Pragmatism.
Transcendentalism, exemplified in the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson,
emphasizes the power of the transcendental over the physical. Many of
Emerson's writings show pronounced Oriental influence, particularly his essays
on the Oversoul and the Law of Compensation. The theory of Pragmatism, while
not original with Professor William James, owes its widespread popularity as a
philosophic tenet to his efforts. Pragmatism may be defined as the doctrine
that the meaning and nature of things are to be discovered from consideration
of their consequences. The true, according to James, "is only an expedient in
the way of our thinking, just as 'the right' is only an expedient in the way
of our behaving." (See his Pragmatism.) John Dewey, the
Instrumentalist, who applies the experimental attitude to all the aims of
life, should be considered a commentator of James. To Dewey, growth and change
are limitless and no ultimates are postulated. The long residence in America
of George Santayana warrants the listing of this great Spaniard among the
ranks of American philosophers. Defending himself with the shield of
skepticism alike from the illusions of the senses and the cumulative errors of
the ages, Santayana seeks to lead mankind into a more apprehending state
denominated by him the life of reason.
(In addition to the authorities
already quoted, in the preparation of the foregoing abstract of the main
branches of philosophic thought the present writer has had recourse to
Stanley's History of Philosophy; Morell's An Historical and Critical
View of the Speculative Philosophy of Europe in the Nineteenth Century;
Singer's Modern Thinkers and Present Problems; Rand's Modern
Classical Philosophers; Windelband's History of Philosophy; Perry's
Present Philosophical Tendencies; Hamilton's Lectures on Metaphysics
and Logic; and Durant's The Story of Philosophy.)
Having thus traced the more or
less sequential development of philosophic speculation from Thales to James
and Bergson, it is now in order to direct the reader's attention to the
elements leading to and the circumstances attendant upon the genesis of
philosophic thinking. Although the Hellenes proved themselves peculiarly
responsive to the disciplines of philosophy, this science of sciences should
not be considered indigenous to them. "Although some of the Grecians," writes
Thomas Stanley, "have challenged to their nation the original of philosophy,
yet the more learned of them have acknowledged it [to be] derived from the
East." The magnificent institutions of Hindu, Chaldean, and Egyptian learning
must be recognized as the actual source of Greek wisdom. The last was
patterned after the shadow cast by the sanctuaries of Ellora, Ur, and Memphis
upon the thought substance of a primitive people. Thales, Pythagoras, and
Plato in their philosophic wanderings contacted many distant cults and brought
back the lore of Egypt and the inscrutable Orient.
From indisputable facts such as
these it is evident that philosophy emerged from the religious Mysteries of
antiquity, not being separated from religion until after the decay of the
Mysteries. Hence he who would fathom the depths of philosophic thought must
familiarize himself with the teachings of those initiated priests designated
as the first custodians of divine revelation. The Mysteries claimed to be the
guardians of a transcendental knowledge so profound as to be incomprehensible
save to the most exalted intellect and so potent as to be revealed with safety
only to those in whom personal ambition was dead and who had consecrated their
lives to the unselfish service of humanity. Both the dignity of these sacred
institutions and the validity of their claim to possession of Universal Wisdom
are attested by the most illustrious philosophers of antiquity, who were
themselves initiated into the profundities of the secret doctrine and who bore
witness to its efficacy.
The question may legitimately
be propounded: If these ancient mystical institutions were of such "great pith
and moment," why is so little information now available concerning them and
the arcana they claimed to possess? The answer is simple enough: The Mysteries
were secret societies, binding their initiates to inviolable secrecy, and
avenging with death the betrayal of their sacred trusts. Although these
schools were the true inspiration of the various doctrines promulgated by the
ancient philosophers, the fountainhead of those doctrines was never revealed
to the profane. Furthermore, in the lapse of time the teachings became so
inextricably linked with the names of their disseminators that the actual but
recondite source--the Mysteries--came to be wholly ignored.
Symbolism is the language of
the Mysteries; in fact it is the language not only of mysticism and philosophy
but of all Nature, for every law and power active in universal procedure is
manifested to the limited sense perceptions of man through the medium of
symbol. Every form existing in the diversified sphere of being is symbolic of
the divine activity by which it is produced. By symbols men have ever sought
to communicate to each other those thoughts which transcend the limitations of
language. Rejecting man-conceived dialects as inadequate and unworthy to
perpetuate divine ideas, the Mysteries thus chose symbolism as a far more
ingenious and ideal method of preserving their transcendental knowledge. In a
single figure a symbol may both reveal and conceal, for to the wise the
subject of the symbol is obvious, while to the ignorant the figure remains
inscrutable. Hence, he who seeks to unveil the secret doctrine of antiquity
must search for that doctrine not upon the open pages of books which might
fall into the hands of the unworthy but in the place where it was originally
concealed.
Far-sighted were the initiates
of antiquity. They realized that nations come and go, that empires rise and
fall, and that the golden ages of art, science, and idealism are succeeded by
the dark ages of superstition. With the needs of posterity foremost in mind,
the sages of old went to inconceivable extremes to make certain that their
knowledge should be preserved. They engraved it upon the face of mountains and
concealed it within the measurements of colossal images, each of which was a
geometric marvel. Their knowledge of chemistry and mathematics they hid within
mythologies which the ignorant would perpetuate, or in the spans and arches of
their temples which time has not entirely obliterated. They wrote in
characters that neither the vandalism of men nor the ruthlessness of the
elements could completely efface, Today men gaze with awe and reverence upon
the mighty Memnons standing alone on the sands of Egypt, or upon the strange
terraced pyramids of Palanque. Mute testimonies these are of the lost arts and
sciences of antiquity; and concealed this wisdom must remain until this race
has learned to read the universal language--SYMBOLISM.
The book to which this is the
introduction is dedicated to the proposition that concealed within the
emblematic figures, allegories, and rituals of the ancients is a secret
doctrine concerning the inner mysteries of life, which doctrine has been
preserved in toto among a small band of initiated minds since the
beginning of the world. Departing, these illumined philosophers left their
formulæ that others, too, might attain to understanding. But, lest these
secret processes fall into uncultured hands and be perverted, the Great
Arcanum was always concealed in symbol or allegory; and those who can today
discover its lost keys may open with them a treasure house of philosophic,
scientific, and religious truths.
THE ORPHIC EGG.
From Bryant's An Analysis of
Ancient Mythology.
The ancient symbol of the
Orphic Mysteries was the serpent-entwined egg, which signified Cosmos as
encircled by the fiery Creative Spirit. The egg also represents the soul of
the philosopher; the serpent, the Mysteries. At the time of initiation the
shell is broke. and man emerges from the embryonic state of physical existence
wherein he had remained through the fetal period of philosophic regeneration.
Next: The Ancient Mysteries and Secret Societies Which Have Influenced Modern
Masonic Symbolism