WHAT IS MEANT BY PHILOSOPHY? 



are the phenomena or appearances, is not many 

 but one. 



It is not expedient to postpone to the final 

 chapters of this book the necessary consideration 

 of the term phenomena, since it must frequently 

 be used in the following pages, and since its true 

 meaning directly bears on the question, What is 

 meant by philosophy? And in order to under- 

 stand it, we must inquire into the nature of the 

 knowing process, for the term depends for its 

 utility and application upon a certain conclusion 

 as to the nature of knowledge. 



It would seem self-evident that, before drawing 

 any conclusions from observation and reflection, 

 it is necessary for the philosopher, if not for the 

 man of science, to make most stringent inquiry 

 into the nature and conditions and validity of 

 what he desires to regard as knowledge. Yet it 

 was not until the coming of a great thinker who 

 died scarcely more than a century ago that the 

 fundamental importance of this inquiry was fully 

 recognized. This is by no means to say that 

 Kant was not preceded by many writers, such as 

 Locke, who devoted much thought to the nature 

 of the knowing process; but even to-day there is 

 probably only a very insignificant minority of 

 people prepared to make positive assertions about 

 something be it only the weather or the fiscal 

 question that have ever spent a moment in 

 asking in what senses and in what measure any 

 33 



