62 



INTRODUCTION. 



6. 



Philosophy 

 retrospec- 

 tive. 



When does 

 thought 

 mean phi- 

 losophy ? 



This means that philosophy is retrospective : it sums up, 

 it criticises, it does not prefigure the future. The correct- 

 ness of this proposition may be doubted. We shall have 

 to deal with it in another place. At present it reminds 

 us that thought, in the sense in which we take it, cannot 

 be identified with philosophy, and hence a history of 

 philosophy in the nineteenth century is not identical 

 with a history of its thought. There is indeed a sense 

 in which the word philosophy is sometimes used, when 

 it approaches more nearly to the meaning of the word 

 thought, as we intend to use it. Whewell has in this 

 sense written the philosophy of the inductive sciences, 

 meaning to trace in that work the processes of thought 

 which are consciously or unconsciously employed in 

 scientific research and reasoning, and which lead to 

 progress in science. Something similar might be at- 

 tempted in regard to art, commerce, politics, government, 

 religion, and literature generally. In every case philo- 

 sophy would simply mean the peculiar way of thinking 

 and reasoning which is adopted in these various branches 

 of practical or intellectual life. This is, however, not the 

 sense in which the word philosophy is generally used. 

 It generally denotes something more than a statement of 

 method or a rationale of ideas and reflections ; it denotes 

 a definite theory, an explanation of a larger or smaller 

 circle of phenomena. As such it certainly forms a part 

 of the thought of the century, probably the most in- 

 teresting and fascinating part ; but it is also that 

 which is most liable to change, most subject to discus- 

 sion ; whereas the other more hidden thoughts and reason- 

 ings form, as it were, the ground upon which all the 



