A fragment on the human mind
From Introduction:
British Philosophy during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries acquired and maintained that individual character which entitles it to rank as one of the most important phases in the history of human thought.
That is the comprehensive histories of philosophy, the independent character of British thought has not found adequate recognition may be explained by two principal causes. First, those comprehensive histories have been written by foreign, mostly German, scholars.
It is only within the last fifty years that British thinkers have studied the history of philosophic thought in its completeness, and though some important contributions to this branch of study have recently appeared in this country, they refer mostly to ancient philosophy.
The second reason for the not uncommon neglect with which British speculation as a whole has been treated abroad is to be found in the close connection which exists between philosophy and general literature. in this country.
This makes it difficult for foreigners to appreciate a body of thought which is essentially home-grown. Expressed in the vernacular and even in popular language, it has a close alliance with the practical problems as well as the literary tastes of its native country. After the age of Francis Bacon, Hobbes, and Newton, whose works were either published in the cosmopolitan Latin tongue or made their way on the Continent through translation into it, we come upon three leading thinkers who governed British thought. \
They came respectively from the three separate countries which constitute the United Kingdom, and have stamped their respective character upon their writings. Locke, with his plain historical method, came from the southwest of England; the imaginative Berkeley came from Ireland; whilst Hume represents the subtlety of the Scottish mind in its most clarified form.
These three thinkers, who form a close succession, received much from Continental and earlier mediaeval and ancient thinkers, but this provoked rather than hampered their originality. And in return, in spite of the neglect just mentioned, they gave more than they received. But what they gave consisted more indefinite well-marked doctrines which had a stimulating efiect on foreign thought than in any general impression from that original and independent method and line of thought which they had made their own.
Modern Philosophy, as distinguished from Mediaeval Philosophy, is usually dated from Descartes. He may be said to have inaugurated the introspective as distinguished from the metaphysical or dialectical point of view as the beginning of all fruitful mental philosophy.
Without entering into minute details, the differences between these two points of view may be stated as follows. The adult thinking mind at that advanced stage of civilisation when and where philosophy becomes a desideratum if not a necessity finds itself in possession of a large number of abstract terms. Such terms, words, or phrases are in general currency among thinking persons, and are used in very various ways.
They are employed to prove certain statements of a general character, and they are equally used to dis- prove these same statements. Through this very different use of the same terms a general confusion arises, and this on its part leads to distrust and scepticism. In Greece, a special art came into existence which purposed to show up this general uncertainty that pervades all discussions on abstract and general subjects. Those who practised this art most successfully professed to be in possession of such wisdom as was attainable, and so were called "Sophists" or professors of " Sophia."
Contents:
PREFACE .....
INTRODUCTION...
I. THE INTROSPECTIVE METHOD.
II. THE FIRMAMENT OF THOUGHT
III. OP EXISTENCE, REALITY, AND VALUE
IV. OF THE SELF AND OTHER-SELVES.
V. SUBJECT AND OBJECT.
V. SUBJECT AND OBJECT.
VI. OF REALITY IN GENERAL
VII. OF THE INNER WORLD.
VIII. OF TRUTH
IX. OF ACTIVITY
X. OF THE PRINCIPLES OP EXACT SCIENCE
XI. OF VALUE .....
XII. OF ARRANGEMENT AND ORDER
XIII. OP DIRECTION, DESIGN, AND PURPOSE
XIV. THE WORLD OF FREEDOM OR OF VALUES
XV. PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION.
XVI. REVELATION...
XVII. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION.
VII. OF THE INNER WORLD.
VIII. OF TRUTH
IX. OF ACTIVITY
X. OF THE PRINCIPLES OP EXACT SCIENCE
XI. OF VALUE .....
XII. OF ARRANGEMENT AND ORDER
XIII. OP DIRECTION, DESIGN, AND PURPOSE
XIV. THE WORLD OF FREEDOM OR OF VALUES
XV. PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION.
XVI. REVELATION...
XVII. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION.
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