登陆注册
15299900000139

第139章

It may be interesting at this point to look across the channel, and inquire what philosophy was doing on the continent.I begin with that country which was the ancient ally of Scotland.Both the Scotch and French philosophies professed to draw much from Locke; but they seized on very different elements.The Scotch followed him in his cautious spirit and {272} careful observation, but withstood from the beginning the rash hypothesis which derived all our ideas from sensation and reflection; and they called in, besides the external and internal senses, other senses as inlets, and in the end came to look upon them as being exercises of reason. The French looked exclusively at the other side of Locke's philosophy, at the experiential side, carrying Locke's theory a stage farther; they left out reflection, made little use of observation, betook themselves to analysis, and exerted their ingenuity to derive all ideas from sensation.Condillac (born 1715, died 1786), made all man's ideas, even the highest, such as cause and moral good, transformed sensations.Most of his works were written for the purpose of helping to educate a prince of Parma, and the author did not mean to undermine morality or religion.But the logical consequences of error follow it unrelentingly, and are apt to come out in practical issues which the authors of it never contemplated.If Condillac did not see, those who came after him clearly perceived that we could not, out of the mere materials supplied by the senses, extract, by any mental chemistry, the idea of moral obligation and of a spiritual God.Helvetius expounded a morality of self-interest; Cabanis evolved all thought out of organized matter, made the brain secrete thought as the liver secretes bile; D'Holbach showed that the issue was blank atheism; and licentious men and women were rejoicing in the thought that they had got rid of duty, of mind, and of God.The fruit of the whole was seen, not in the French Revolution, which was much needed, and would have come, with or without the philosophy, -- but in the direction which it took, and the atrocities which it perpetrated, and which caused it, unlike the English and American revolutions, to issue in a military despotism.By the close of the century, this philosophy had gone beyond ripeness to rottenness, and finer minds were turning away from it, and seeking for something better.The reaction started by Laromiguierre, and carried on more effectively by Royer Collard, and yet more so by his pupils Jouffroy and {273} Cousin, turned eagerly, as we shall see, towards the well-rounded philosophy of Reid and Stewart.

In Germany, philosophy took a very different direction.

Leibnitz had opposed Locke and his experiential method, and had imparted a speculative spirit and an ideal elevation to the German thinking; and Wolf had labored to reduce the whole to logical forms.And now, as the offspring of the two, of idealism and formalism, the true German philosophy came forth from the brain of Emmanuel Kant, who was born 1724, died 1804, and published his great work, the "Kritik der reine Vernunft" in 1781, which took a considerably revised form in 1787.That philosophy was already taking firm hold of the German mind, and has not at this day lost its grasp, notwithstanding the efforts of Darwinism and materialism to loosen it.As it differed from the French, so it also differed from the Scotch.In a sense, indeed, Kant's philosophy was transplanted from the Scottish soil.Kant's grandfather named Cant, a saddler, emigrated from Scotland; I and some think that he thence derived hereditarily his high conception of moral law: and he acknowledges that he was roused from his dogmatic slumbers by Hume's sceptical account of the relation of cause and effect But Reid and Kant, though both opposed to Hume, took up very different lines of defence.In respect of method, Reid followed the inductive method, with self-consciousness as the instrument of observation; whereas Kant inaugurated the critical method, as distinguished from the dogmatic method of Descartes on the one hand, and the empirical method of Locke on the other.The critical method takes upon itself to criticise all principles; but it can do so only by other principles, {274} avowed, or more frequently unavowed, -- and the question is started: How are these other principles to be judged? by other principles, and these by other principles without end? Or, if we must stop somewhere, the question is, Where? and, Why there? Every German metaphysician plants himself on his own stand-point, which he says cannot be disputed: but his neighbor disputes it or selects another; and there is a perpetual criticism, and an endless building, but without an undisputed foundation.In one respect, indeed, the two, the Scotch and German philosophies, were alike: both stood up for principles which did not derive their authority from experience.But the Scottish metaphysicians discovered these by a careful inquiry into the operations of the human mind; Kant, by a process of logical discussion.On another point they differed: the Scottish metaphysicians make our primitive perceptions or intuitions look at realities -- , whereas Kant stands up for <a priori> principles, which regulate experience and have only a subjective validity.Having allowed idealism to enter, there was no means of arresting its career.As Kant had made time and space, substance and cause, mere forms in the mind, Fichte was only advancing a few steps farther on the same road when he made the whole universe a projection of the mind -- , and, in the succeeding age, Schelling made it an intellectual intuition, and Hegel a logical process.Even as the French sensationalism led to atheism, so the German idealism culminated in pantheism.Every one will allow that the German philosophy had a much more elevated character, and a much more elevating tendency, than the French.Its influence on the great body of the German people may not have been so great as that of the Scottish philosophy on the Scottish thought.On the other hand, its influence has been vastly greater on literature, to which it has imparted a high ideal character, as seen especially in the poetry of Germany, and of other countries which have borrowed from it.{275}

同类推荐
  • 圣女祠

    圣女祠

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 读史抄

    读史抄

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 灵信经旨

    灵信经旨

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 明伦汇编人事典四十一岁至五十岁部

    明伦汇编人事典四十一岁至五十岁部

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • The Adventures

    The Adventures

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 踏碎星辰

    踏碎星辰

    圣武大陆,万千武院林立,诸多异族虎视。苦修多年无法踏入武道的穷苦少年林凡,受尽他人无尽欺凌,命在顷刻之际,觉醒无上血脉九转战天,可九次死而复生,一次比一次强横,从此一飞冲天,又得至强者传承,修行无上秘法万界星窍功,掌控万千星辰,镇压万界,成就无上神帝!
  • 素问六气玄珠密语

    素问六气玄珠密语

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 世纪佣兵

    世纪佣兵

    由上个宇宙混沌,遗留下的指引。我们保卫着家园,保卫着属于我们的混沌宇宙。对抗一切威胁我们的事物。我需要力量龙逸
  • 进化主神之路

    进化主神之路

    隐忍少年,身怀天书残卷,偶遇毒舌御姐,开启无限进化。一朝为蛇,十年成龙,看落魄少年如何走上神之御座,纵横天下!
  • 我的猛鬼老婆大人

    我的猛鬼老婆大人

    前世的债,今世即是果。谁都逃不了的,除非你能与天抗衡与命运做对
  • 火影晓之九

    火影晓之九

    大家:我打算重新修一下。
  • 魔鬼恋人:伪恋

    魔鬼恋人:伪恋

    【主角非森唯】神魔混血的公主出逃进入吸血鬼城堡当厨师?进入这诡异森然的城堡,看着城堡里诡异的六个“人”,麻麻,她好像知道了什么不得了的事情,小森唯的失踪,月浪和无神家族的反常,让一切的一切都充满了谜团,当你握住那血色的月光,我将带你进入地狱的盛宴,困住你的心,我将永远得到你的怀抱和爱。【剧情纯虚构】
  • 卿本红妆:凤城飞将

    卿本红妆:凤城飞将

    北方边境,狼烟四起,屠城之祸,迫在眉睫……金戈铁马、纵横天下,指挥百万大军笑傲沙场——如果,没有人知道她的身份,凤城飞帅是不是可以这样辉煌自在一辈子?可是,厚厚的盔甲遮挡不住绝世的风华和璀璨的容颜,她的归宿是青梅竹马的宰相之子还是半途结识的神秘教主?或者是窥测一旁的野心帝王?
  • 《萌三国:小盆友也要爱》

    《萌三国:小盆友也要爱》

    原谅我这只是创错的废文QUQ一年前手抽创的QUQ希望大家无视嘤嘤嘤
  • 天地求生

    天地求生

    人类不死的真正原因是什么,蓬莱仙岛是否真的存在过,亚特兰蒂斯沉没在了何处,地球面临宇宙深处的强大文明能否存活下来,重生回到天地异变前,辰毅发誓今生要逆转乾坤,站在天地之巅!