51 6 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



cross-sections of reality while we wish to get a comprehensive view of 

 the whole. Physics may be able to explain its facts by assuming the 

 existence of homogeneous atoms and force, but can the chemist under- 

 stand his phenomena without presupposing the qualitative difference 

 of such atoms? Can the biologist undertake to interpret life with 

 purely mechanical principles; can he reconcile the purposiveness of 

 organisms with the mechanical theory of causation? Will the psy- 

 chologist, who deals with states of mind or consciousness, be able to 

 account for the existence of these from the physicist's principles, atoms 

 and motion? A science is needed that will consciously and method- 

 ically aim to bring order into this chaos, that will consider all the facts, 

 and, if possible, unify these facts. It will subject the principles offered 

 by the various sciences to the most critical examination, compare them 

 with one another, point out their inconsistencies where such exist, it will 

 in short, rectify, harmonize and if possible unify results. Such a sci- 

 ence is philosophy. Its need is apparent. If men are bound to 

 philosophize at all, it is a reasonable demand that they should do the 

 work well. We cannot leave the solution of the greatest problems to 

 chance, to the haphazard methods of persons unskilled in such work, 

 and prejudiced enough to adjust the facts to their theories. Here aa 

 everywhere else, he will do the best work who has the best training, and 

 concentrates his entire time and energy upon the field of his choice. 



Such reflections as these have brought the modem world back again 

 to philosophy. The philistine is defined as the man without intellec- 

 tual needs, and the philistine alone sees no need of philosophy. The 

 great scientists do not allow their occupation with the details of reality 

 tc' blunt their vision of the whole. They look up from their microscopes 

 occasionally; they can not rest satisfied with blindly staring at the 

 minutiae; they aim to understand things by seeing them in their rela- 

 tions to the whole. 



The measurement of the time required for a current to pass through 

 the sciatic nerve of a frog will not, taken by itself, make us any the wiser. 

 Mere facts must be made the stepping-stones to something higher. 

 Our age is becoming more fully aware of the need of philosophical study. 

 This is evident from the renewal of the philosophical activity in all 

 departments of knowledge. Protestant theology is striving after a 

 rational explanation of dogmas — heresy trials show that ! Catholicism 

 has its philosophy; it accepts the conceptions of Thomas Aquinas, 

 whose source is Aristotle. In jurisprudence, economics, politics, so- 

 ciology and history the philosophical tendency is manifesting itself. 

 Mathematicians, too, are speculating concerning the nature of number, 

 space and related notions. In the words of Wundt the view is spread- 

 ing among natural scientists ' that the mere description and combina- 

 tion of the facts of a limited field will no longer suffice, but that it is 



