WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY? 517 



the highest aim of the particiilar branches of natural science to co- 

 operate in obtaining a comprehetisive conception of nature.'* 



A further evidence of the intensification of philosophical activity 

 is offered by the increased sale of philosophical books, the publication 

 of philosophical journals, and the strengthening and establishment of 

 departments of philosophy in our universities. Our own country, 

 though frequently accused of being the most materialistic nation on the 

 globe, is becoming a zealous admirer of philosophy. Our philosophical 

 journals are increasing in number and in circulation, and improving 

 in scientific merit, while our great publishing houses are issuing the 

 works of noted authors of all countries, and rendering them accessible 

 to a wider sphere of students. 



We have been discussing in the foregoing the fortunes and nature 

 of philosophy proper, during the immediate past. We identified the 

 term philosophy with metaphysics, or the science of first principles. 

 But philosophical study does not occupy itself wholly with metaphysics. 

 That in truth is its very highest and hence latest function. It cannot 

 attempt to offer an explanation of the facts of the world, until it has 

 become acquainted with a large body of these facts. Now the world 

 as a whole presents us with two sets of phenomena, physical and mental, 

 and corresponding to this division we have two classes of sciences, phys- 

 ical or natural science and mental science. The former deal with the 

 manifestations of the external or physical universe, with lifeless and 

 living matter; the latter, with the manifestations of the inner world, 

 with consciousness or mind. The fundamental mental science is called 

 psychology, which analyzes, classifies and explains states of conscious- 

 ness. On it are based such studies as logic, esthetics, ethics and the 

 philosophy of religion. Psychology asks such questions as these: 

 What are the nature and conditions of sensation, perception, imagina- 

 tion, memory, conception, emotion, instinct, impulse, attention, 

 volition; all of these states being facts of mind or consciousness. 

 Logic asks: How does the mind act when it reasons, when it reaches 

 sentences that we regard as true ? What are the forms or laws or prin- 

 ciples of reasoning? What are the methods employed by the scientist 

 in his investigations? What, in short, are the rules of deduction and 

 induction? ^Esthetics asks: What in the soul and in objects is it that 

 makes us call things beautiful or ugly, sublime or ridiculous? What 

 makes a production a work of art ; what are the laws or principles gov- 

 erning the artistic? Ethics asks: What are the characteristics of 

 morality? Why do we designate one act as right, another as wrong? 

 What forms the criterion or standard with which moral facts are meas- 

 ured? We feel that certain courses of conduct are wrong. What is 

 the nature and origin of this feeling? How is it developed? What, 



* Wundt, Essays, p. 4. 



