INTRODUCTION. 



65 



said to have grown out of these vague and scattered 

 beginnings by the attempt to conduct them according to 

 some method, and to unite them into a complete and con- 

 sistent whole. Philosophy may thus be defined as specula- lo. 



^ J "^ ^ Philosophy 



tion carried on according to some clear method, and aim- defined, 

 ing at systematic unity.^ Both science and philosophy 

 may be called methodical thought, but the word system is 

 applicable only to the higher and more advanced forms of 

 philosophic thought which aim at unity and completeness. 

 We have thus arrived at a second division of our sub- 

 ject. In the first we have to consider thought merely as 

 a means to an end ; in the second we have to consider it as 

 its own object, as a reflection on itself, carried on with the 

 object of knowing its own origin, its laws, its validity, of 

 testing its powers, and with the end and aim of gaining 

 certainty, completeness, and unity. The whole of this jji^jg^o^Qf 

 great division of thought I shall comprise under the ^^^ ^^- 



1 This view of the nature and 

 object of Philosophy agrees with 

 Lotze's definition (see ' Grundziige 

 der Logik,' Leipzig, 1883, 88) : 

 "The comTnon culture of life and 

 the separate sciences contain a num- 

 ber of suppositions the origin of 

 which is obscure to us, because they 

 have been very gradually formed 

 within us through the comparison 

 of many experiences, or because 

 they have first become conscious by 

 means of such experiences, have 

 then received definite names and be- 

 come habitual without having been 

 suVjjected by us to any examina- 

 tion as to the reason, the sense, and 

 the extent of their validity. In this 

 way science and life make use of the 

 notions of cause and effect, of matter 

 and force, of means and end, oi free- 

 dom and necessity, of matter and 



VOL. I. 



mind, and they frequently entangle 

 themselves, owing to the above-men- 

 tioned defect, in contradictions, in- 

 asmuch as they are unable to fix the 

 limits of validity of these to some 

 extent contradictory assumptions. 



"Now we may formally define 

 the task of Philosophy as follows : 

 that it is an endeavour to import 

 unity and connectedness into the 

 scattered directions of cultured 

 thought, to follow each of these 

 directions into its assumptions and 

 into its consequences, to combine 

 them all together, to remove their 

 contradictions, and to form out of 

 them a comprehensive view of the 

 world ; mainly, however, to subject 

 those ideas which science and life 

 regard as principles to a special 

 scrutiny, in order to determine the 

 limits of their validity." 



E 



