Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

6

without difficulty-in some cases could not find at all. Dugald Stewart's 'Dissertation,' prefixed to the Encyclopædia Britannica,' is, I believe, the only account of Modern Philosophy in English. It is as entertaining as it is erudite; but it does not profess to be a History, and is rather a collection of adversaria than an exposition of opinions. To relish it, one must come prepared with a knowledge of the philosophical systems treated of; Stewart rarely helps the reader to that knowledge. Moreover, he knew nothing of German; very little of Spinoza; he has omitted Bacon; and gives no exposition of Berkeley's 'Idealism.' I have, consequently, treated Bacon and Spinoza at some length; have given Berkeley's theory in his own words; and have devoted considerable care to Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel. The chapters on these latter will, I trust, be found to render those speculations intelligible which have, hitherto, been given up in despair by most French and English students. I have not only presented the opinions of the Transcendentalists in a more intelligible form, but have endeavoured to show by what logical process these opinions were arrived at.

Some objection may, perhaps, be made to the amount of criticism mingled with the exposition. In this, though sinning against the office of Historian, I have been prompted by the one steady purpose which gives this work its unity, viz.: That of showing by Argument, what History shows by Facts, that to attempt to construct a science of Metaphysics is to attempt an impossibility.

January, 1846.

INTRODUCTION.

PREPARATIONS FOR BACON AND DESCARTES :Scholasticism.

BACON and DESCARTES are the Fathers of Modern Philosophy. The title is not unfrequently given to Descartes alone; and with justice, if by Philosophy we understand Metaphysics; which is, indeed, what all historians of Philosophy understand by the word, and what has also been understood by it in the course of this work.*

It was at the period in which Bacon and Descartes flourished that the two antagonists, Metaphysics and Physics, first stood up openly, manfully against each other: consequently it is at this epoch of our history that the ambiguous nature of the term

* Vide Vol. I. p. 11. We have heard many objections to this restricted use of the word Philosophy, and have been blamed, as if it were a caprice of ours. We must therefore

again express our disapproval of the restriction; and again declare that it is forced on us by the invariable practice of our predecessors. Let one example suffice; it shall be taken from a work only just published-" Philosophy may, in general, be reduced to five sciences, united by close bonds: Psychology, Logic, Metaphysics, Theodicy (Theology), and Ethics."-Abelard, par Ch. de Rémusat, Paris, 1845.

Philosophy becomes most apparent. When Physics were jumbled with Metaphysics, or received metaphysical explanations, there was no impropriety in designating all man's speculations by the name of Philosophy. When the separation took place, men were anxious to indicate that separation even in their language. Accordingly, it sounds somewhat harshly in most English ears to speak of the science of Metaphysics, or the science of Morals; in the same way as it sounds inaccurate to a German to speak of the Physical Sciences as Philosophy.* Even amongst ourselves the word is usually qualified: thus we speak of chemical philosophy, natural philosophy, &c.

The fact is, that a History of Philosophy is always understood to mean a History of Metaphysics. Now, properly speaking, in such a work Bacon has no place. Neither his speculations nor his method have anything in common with those of Philosophers. The great problems of Philosophy are by him left untouched. The influence he exercised over succeeding generations has been that of a steady opposition to all speculations not comprised within the sphere of physics. His title his great and glorious title is that of Father of Experimental Philosophy-Father of Positive Science.

There is no gainsaying this. And yet it would seem preposterous to leave out Bacon from our history, the more so as our predecessors have

* Hegel, with some scorn, notices the fact that in England Newton is ranked amongst the greatest philosophers; and he justly enough ridicules our applying the epithet "philosophical" to the instruments used in the laboratory and observatory.

always included him. Mr. Whewell, in his 'History of the Inductive Sciences,' has excluded him. Moreover, the peculiar object of our work being to trace the various Methods by which the human mind " was enabled to conquer for itself, in the long struggle of centuries, its present modicum of certain knowledge," we could not pass over the great attempt of Bacon to found that Method.

Bacon and Descartes must therefore be regarded as the initiators of modern Science and modern Metaphysics. They both threw off the trammels of their age, and opened a new era in each department. Bacon stands at the head of the Inductive, à posteriori, movement, and is claimed by men of science as their leader. Descartes stands at the head of the pure Deductive, à priori, movement, and is claimed by all metaphysicians as their leader. To him, therefore, belongs the title of Father of Modern Philosophy, in that restricted sense of the word which we are forced to adopt. But although these two great men deserve the proud titles which posterity has bestowed upon them-although they really did separate themselves from the reigning dogmas of their day, and did open new paths of inquiry, on which they travelled far beyond their contemporaries, we must not suppose them unindebted to their contemporaries. They were the creatures no less than the creators of their epoch. They founded new schools, but they founded them on the ruins and out of the materials around them. As the sophists of Greece were but the result of preceding thinkers, and paved the way for Socrates,

**Descartes, however, has claims also to the title of Father of Science; but his great province is metaphysics.

so did the Science and Scholasticism of the Middle the way for Bacon and Descartes.

Ages pave

It would be frivolous to suppose that from Proclus to Descartes, from the fifth to the seventeenth centuries, there had been no philosophical activity. No one would imagine, that because Proclus was the last of ancient philosophers, and Descartes the first of modern, that therefore the whole intervening period was a blank. Thus it becomes a matter of interest to inquire into this intervening period, and to learn by what links the Ancient and the Modern are connected.

We have already (Vol. II. p. 224) stated reasons for not including any detailed account of Philosophy during the Middle Ages; we shall therefore content ourselves with very rapidly sketching the course which speculation took during the interval between Proclus and Descartes.

With the Alexandrians, Philosophy became absorbed in Religion. Those who succeeded them were the Fathers of the Christian Church, and with them also Philosophy was only the handmaid to Religion. The reader has heard of Scholasticism-of its subtlety, its wire-drawn distinctions, and its voluminous frivolity. He has, doubtless, also heard it spoken of in the high-flown language of paradoxical eulogy; and has been told that this much-decried Scholasticism is a mine of profound truths, and a splendid illustration of man's speculative ability. How far either the contempt or the admiration is deserved, we are not called upon to decide. Enough for our present purpose if we cite the opinion of one favourable to Scholasticism, who expressly declares that it was nothing else than the employment of philosophy in the service

66

« AnteriorContinuar »