INTRODUCTION 



theless, an objective causal nexus must be recog- 

 nized as existent, although inscrutable, and that 

 the law of causation is a necessary truth, which 

 " can be explained and defended only as the 

 product of a mental limitation due to absolute 

 uniformity of experience," while the true expla- 

 nation of our beHef in causation must reconcile 

 the opposed views of " Kant and Hamilton, 

 on the one hand, and of Hume and Mill, on 

 the other hand," in the well-known Spencerian 

 fashion. 



13. Chapter vii., on " Anthropomorphism 

 and Cosmism," recurs to the critical discussion 

 of the philosophy of Comte. This chapter 

 clearly belongs in substance to the original 

 series of lectures upon which the book was 

 founded. At length it portrays Comte*s doc- 

 trine of the " three stages " of the history of 

 thought, and connects the criticism of this doc- 

 trine with the general theory of the development 

 of scientific and philosophic method. With the 

 detail and with the justice of Fiske's estimate 

 of Comte we are not here concerned. The 

 reader is impressed, however, especially in view 

 of Fiske's later treatment of the problems of 

 religion, with the fact that, for him in this chap- 

 ter, " the progress of that kind of knowledge 

 which we call philosophy is one and the same," 

 viz. " a continuous process of deanthropomor- 



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