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PREFACE
PREFACE
This volume, as indicated by the title, is designed to show the way to the beginner, to satisfy and more especially to excite his initial curiosity. It affords an adequate idea of the march of facts and of ideas. The reader is led, somewhat rapidly, from the remote origins to the most recent efforts of the human mind. It should be a convenient repertory to which the mind may revert in order to see broadly the general opinion of an epoch—and what connected it with those that followed or preceded
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CHAPTER I. BEFORE SOCRATES
CHAPTER I. BEFORE SOCRATES
Philosophical Interpreters of the Universe, of the Creation and Constitution of the World. PHILOSOPHY.—The aim of philosophy is to seek the explanation of all things: the quest is for the first causes of everything, and also how all things are, and finally why , with what design, with a view to what, things are. That is why, taking "principle" in all the senses of the word, it has been called the science of first principles. Philosophy has always existed. Religions—all religions—are philosophies
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CHAPTER II. THE SOPHISTS
CHAPTER II. THE SOPHISTS
Logicians and Professors of Logic, and of the Analysis of Ideas, and of Discussion. DOCTRINES OF THE SOPHISTS.—The Sophists descend from Parmenides and Zeno of Elea; Gorgias was the disciple of the latter. By dint of thinking that all is semblance save the Supreme Being, who alone is real, it is very easy to arrive at belief in all being semblance, including that Being; or at least what is almost tantamount, that all is semblance, inclusive of any idea we can possibly conceive of the Supreme Bei
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CHAPTER III. SOCRATES
CHAPTER III. SOCRATES
Philosophy Entirely Reduced to Morality, and Morality Considered as the End of all Intellectual Activity. THE PHILOSOPHY OF SOCRATES.—Of Socrates nothing is known except that he was born at Athens, that he held many public discussions with all and sundry in the streets of Athens, and that he died under the Thirty Tyrants. Of his ideas we know nothing, because he wrote nothing, and because his disciples were far too intelligent; in consequence of which it is impossible to know if what they said w
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CHAPTER IV. PLATO
CHAPTER IV. PLATO
Plato, like Socrates, is Pre-eminently a Moralist, but he reverts to General Consideration of the Universe and Deals with Politics and Legislation. PLATO A DISCIPLE OF SOCRATES.—Plato, like Xenophon, was a pupil of Socrates, but Xenophon only wanted to be the clerk of Socrates; and Plato, as an enthusiastic disciple, was at the same time very faithful and very unfaithful to Socrates. He was a faithful disciple to Socrates in never failing to place morality in the foremost rank of all philosophic
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CHAPTER V. ARISTOTLE
CHAPTER V. ARISTOTLE
A Man of Encyclopedic Learning; as Philosopher, more especially Moralist and Logician. ARISTOTLE, PUPIL OF PLATO.—Aristotle of Stagira was a pupil of Plato, and he remembered it, as the best pupils do as a rule, in order to oppose him. For some years he was tutor to Alexander, son of Philip, the future Alexander the Great. He taught long at Athens. After the death of Alexander, being the target in his turn of the eternal accusation of impiety, he was forced to retire to Chalcis, where he died. A
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CHAPTER VI. VARIOUS SCHOOLS
CHAPTER VI. VARIOUS SCHOOLS
The Development in Various Schools of the General Ideas of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. THE SCHOOL OF PLATO; THEOPHRASTUS.—The school of Plato (not regarding Aristotle as belonging entirely to that school) was continued by Speusippus, Polemo, Xenocrates, Crates, and Crantor. Owing to a retrograde movement, widely different from that of Aristotle, it dabbled in the Pythagorean ideas, with which Plato was acquainted and which he often appreciated, but not blindly, and to which he never confined
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CHAPTER VII. EPICUREANISM
CHAPTER VII. EPICUREANISM
Epicureanism Believes that the Duty of Man is to Seek Happiness, and that Happiness Consists in Wisdom. MORAL PHILOSOPHY.—Continuing to feel the strong impulse which it had received from Socrates, philosophy was now for a long while to be almost exclusively moral philosophy. Only it divided very sharply in two directions. Antisthenes and Aristippus were both pupils of Socrates. From Antisthenes came the Cynics; from Aristippus the philosophers of pleasure. The Cynics gave birth to the Stoics, th
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CHAPTER VIII. STOICISM
CHAPTER VIII. STOICISM
The Passions are Diseases which can and must be Extirpated. THE LOGIC OF STOICISM.—Stoicism existed as a germ in the Cynic philosophy (and also in Socrates) as did Epicureanism in Aristippus. Zeno was the pupil of Crates. In extreme youth he opened a school at Athens in the Poecile. The Poecile was a portico; portico in Greek is stoa , hence the name of Stoic. Zeno taught for about thirty years; then, on the approach of age, he died by his own hand. Zeno thought, as did Epicurus and Socrates, th
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CHAPTER IX. ECLECTICS AND SCEPTICS
CHAPTER IX. ECLECTICS AND SCEPTICS
Philosophers who Wished to Belong to No School Philosophers who Decried All Schools and All Doctrines. THE TWO TENDENCIES.—As might be expected to happen, and as always happens, the multiplicity of sects brought about two tendencies, one consisting in selecting somewhat arbitrarily from each sect what one found best in it, which is called "eclecticism," the other in thinking that no school grasped the truth, that the truth is not to be grasped, which is called "scepticism." THE ECLECTICS: PLUTAR
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CHAPTER X. NEOPLATONISM
CHAPTER X. NEOPLATONISM
Reversion to Metaphysics. Imaginative Metaphysicians after the Manner of Plato, but in Excess. ALEXANDRINISM.—Amid all this, metaphysics—namely, the effort to comprehend the universe—appears somewhat at a discount. It enjoyed a renaissance in the third century of our era among some teachers from Alexandria (hence the name of the Alexandrine school) who came to lecture at Rome with great success. Alexandrinism is a "Neoplatonism"—that is, a renewed Platonism and, as considered by its authors, an
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CHAPTER XI. CHRISTIANITY
CHAPTER XI. CHRISTIANITY
Philosophic Ideas which Christianity Welcomed, Adopted, or Created How it must Give a Fresh Aspect to All Philosophy, even that Foreign to Itself. CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY AND MORALITY.—Christianity spread through the Empire by the propaganda of the Apostles, and more especially St. Paul, from about the year 40. Its success was extremely rapid, especially among the populace, and little by little it won over the upper classes. As a general philosophy, primitive Christianity did not absolutely bring m
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CHAPTER I. FROM THE FIFTH CENTURY TO THE THIRTEENTH
CHAPTER I. FROM THE FIFTH CENTURY TO THE THIRTEENTH
Philosophy is only an Interpreter of Dogma. When it is Declared Contrary to Dogma by the Authority of Religion, it is a Heresy. Orthodox and Heterodox Interpretations. Some Independent Philosophers. DOGMA.—After the invasion of the barbarians, philosophy, like literature, sought refuge in monasteries and in the schools which prelates instituted and maintained near them. But the Church does not permit the free search for truth. The truth has been established by the Fathers of the Church and fixed
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CHAPTER II. THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY
CHAPTER II. THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY
Influence of Aristotle His Adoption by the Church. Religious Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas. ARISTOTLE AND THE CHURCH.—From the thirteenth century, Aristotle, completely known and translated into Latin, was adopted by the Church and became in some sort its lay vicar. He was regarded, and I think rightly, as of all the Greek thinkers the least dangerous to her and as the one to whom could be left all the scientific instruction whilst she reserved to herself all the religious teaching. Aristotle
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CHAPTER III. THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES
CHAPTER III. THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES
Decadence of Scholasticism. Forebodings of the Coming Era. Great Moralists. The Kabbala. Sorcery. DECADENCE OF SCHOLASTICISM.—The fourteenth century dated the decadence of scholasticism, but saw little new. "Realism" was generally abandoned, and the field was swept by "nominalism," which was the theory that ideas only have existence in the brains which conceive them. Thus Durand de Saint-Pourçain remains famous for having said, "To exist is to be individually," which at that epoch was very audac
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CHAPTER IV. THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
CHAPTER IV. THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
It Is Fairly Accurate to Consider that from the Point of View of Philosophy, the Middle Ages Lasted until Descartes. Free-thinkers More or Less Disguised. Partisans of Reason Apart from Faith, of Observation, and Of Experiment. THE FREEDOM OF PHILOSOPHY: POMPONAZZO.—The freedom and even the audacity of philosophy rapidly increased. Learned and convinced Aristotelians were bent, either from sheer love of truth or from a more secret purpose, on demonstrating to what extent Aristotle, accurately re
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CHAPTER I. THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
CHAPTER I. THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
Descartes. Cartesianism. DESCARTES.—The seventeenth century, which was the greatest philosophic century of modern times and perhaps of any time, began with René Descartes. Descartes, born at La Haye in Touraine in 1596, of noble family (his real name was des Quartes), was educated by the Jesuits of the college of La Flèche, followed the military profession for several years, then gave himself up to mathematics and became one of the greatest mathematicians of Europe, traveled all over Europe for
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CHAPTER II. CARTESIANS
CHAPTER II. CARTESIANS
All the Seventeenth Century was under the Influence of Descartes. Port-Royal, Bossuet, Fénelon, Malebranche, Spinoza, Leibnitz. CARTESIAN INFLUENCE.—Nearly all the seventeenth century was Cartesian, and in the general sense of the word, not only as supporters of the method of evidence, but as adherents of the general philosophy of Descartes. Gassendi (a Provençal, and not an Italian), professor of philosophy at Aix, subsequently in Paris, was not precisely a faithful disciple of Descartes, and h
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CHAPTER III. THE ENGLISH PHILOSOPHERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
CHAPTER III. THE ENGLISH PHILOSOPHERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
Locke: His Ideas on Human Liberty, Morality, General Politics, and Religious Politics. LOCKE.—Locke, very learned in various sciences—physics, chemistry, medicine, often associated with politics, receiving enlightenment from life, from frequent travels, from friendships with interesting and illustrious men, always studying and reflecting until an advanced old age, wrote only carefully premeditated works: his Treatise of Government and Essay on the Human Understanding . Locke appears to have writ
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CHAPTER IV. THE ENGLISH PHILOSOPHERS OF THE
CHAPTER IV. THE ENGLISH PHILOSOPHERS OF THE
Berkeley: Highly Idealist Philosophy which Regarded Matter as Non-existent. David Hume: Sceptical Philosophy. The Scottish School: Common Sense Philosophy. BERKELEY.—To the "sensualist" Locke succeeded Berkeley, the unrestrained "idealist," like him an Englishman. He began to write when very young, continued to write until he was sixty, and died at sixty-eight. He believed neither in matter nor in the external world. There was the whole of his philosophy. Why did he not believe in them? Because
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CHAPTER V. FRENCH PHILOSOPHERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
CHAPTER V. FRENCH PHILOSOPHERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Voltaire a Disciple of Locke. Rousseau a Freethinking Christian, but deeply Imbued with Religious Sentiments. Diderot a Capricious Materialist. D'Holbach and Helvetius Avowed Materialists. Condillac a Philosopher of Sensations. VOLTAIRE; ROUSSEAU.—The French philosophy of the eighteenth century, fairly feeble it must be avowed, seemed as if dominated by the English philosophy, excepting Berkeley, but especially by Locke and David Hume, more particularly Locke, who was the intellectual deity of t
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CHAPTER VI. KANT
CHAPTER VI. KANT
Kant Reconstructed all Philosophy by Supporting it on Morality. KNOWLEDGE.—Kant, born at Königsberg in 1724, was professor there all his life and died there in 1804. Nothing happened to him except the possession of genius. He had commenced with the theological philosophy in use in his country, that of Wolf, which on broad lines was that of Leibnitz. But he early read David Hume, and the train of thought of the sceptical Scotsman at least gave him the idea of submitting all philosophic ideas to a
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CHAPTER VII. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: GERMANY
CHAPTER VII. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: GERMANY
The great reconstructors of the world, analogous to the first philosophers of antiquity. Great general systems: Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, etc. FICHTE.—Fichte, embarrassed by what remained of experience in the ideas of Kant, by the part, restricted though it was, which Kant left to things in the external world, completely suppressed the external world, like Berkeley, and affirmed the existence of the human ego alone. Kant said that the world furnished us with the matter of the idea and that we fu
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CHAPTER VIII. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND
CHAPTER VIII. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND
The Doctrines of Evolution and of Transformism: Lamarck (French), Darwin, Spencer. TRANSFORMISM AND EVOLUTION.—The great philosophic invention of the English of the nineteenth century has been the idea, based on a wide knowledge of natural history, that there never was creation. The animal species had been considered by all the philosophers (except Epicurus and the Epicureans) as being created once and for all and remaining invariable. Nothing of the kind. Matter, eternally fruitful, has transfo
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CHAPTER IX. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: FRANCE
CHAPTER IX. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: FRANCE
The Eclectic School: Victor Cousin. The Positivist School: Auguste Comte. The Kantist School: Renouvier. Independent and Complex Positivists: Taine, Renan. LAROMIGUIÈRE: ROYER-COLLARD.—Emerging from the school of Condillac, France saw Laromiguière who was a sort of softened Condillac, less trenchant, and not insensible to the influence of Rousseau; but he was little more than a clear and elegant professor of philosophy. Royer-Collard introduced into France the Scottish philosophy (Thomas Reid, D
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