8 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



5. 



Contrast 

 between 

 philosophi- 

 cal and 

 scientific 

 thought. 



century, 1 enabling us to bring some order into the 

 tangled maze of speculative writing and to construct a 

 road through the labyrinth of philosophical opinions. 

 The sequel will show that, to a large extent, I shall avail 

 myself of this method. For the moment I wish to dwell 

 on this point with the object of giving to my readers a 

 preliminary idea of the difference between philosophical 

 and scientific thought. The full appreciation of this 

 difference can, of course, only be reached during the 

 course of the second portion of this History itself. 



Science for long ages has lived, as much as philosophy 

 still lives, under the control, not to say the tyranny, of 

 language and of words. 2 It is well known that science 

 for a long time formed merely a branch of philosophy, 



1 Iii fact, such a process has been 

 suggested by a well-known author- 

 ity : " a history of the language 

 ... in which the introduction 

 of every new word should be noted 

 ... in which such words as have be- 

 come obsolete should be followed 

 down to their final extinction, in 

 which all the most remarkable 

 words should be traced through their 

 successive phases of meaning, and 

 in which, moreover, the causes and 

 occasions of these changes should 

 be explained, such a work would 

 not only abound in entertainment, 

 but would throw more light on the 

 development of the human mind 

 than all the brain - spun systems 

 of metaphysics that ever were 

 written " (Archdeacon Hare, 

 quoted by Trench, ' English Past 

 and Present,' p. 2). "When the 

 function of language in producing 

 and maintaining community of 

 knowledge among men is once con- 

 sidered, its philosophical import is 

 seen to be of the most profound 

 and far - reaching character ; and 

 Reid with his 'common-sense ' is to 



be blamed only for allowing the 

 more important use of the word 

 ' common ' to be overshadowed by 

 its other implication of ' ordinary ' 

 (as having relation to everyday 

 experience and practice). In 

 making what reference he did to 

 language, he shadowed forth a 

 surer method of philosophical 

 analysis than Kant, with all his 

 more laboured art, was able to 

 devise." See G. Groom Robertson, 

 in ' Mind,' O.S., vol. xi. p. 270 ; 

 also 'Philosophical Remains,' p. 421. 

 2 It was one of the idols which 

 Bacon desired to destroy under the 

 title of." Idols of the Market-place " : 

 " For it is by discourse that men 

 associate ; and words are imposed 

 according to the apprehension of 

 the vulgar. And therefore the ill 

 and unfit choice of words wonder- 

 fully obstructs the understanding. 

 . . . Words plainly force and over- 

 rule the understanding and throw 

 all into confusion, and lead men 

 away into numberless empty contro- 

 versies and idle fancies " ( ' Novum 

 Organum, ' book i. , Aphorism xliii. ) 



