COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



in this violation of the doctrine of relativity 

 committed by the philosophy of Reid and Ham- 

 ilton, it refuses also to join in the very different 

 violation of the doctrine which is committed by 

 the philosophy of Berkeley and Hume. For 

 while it admits, to the fullest extent, the posi- 

 tion that we can never know the Absolute 

 Existence of which phenomena are the mani- 

 festations, it at the same time asserts that the 

 doctrine of relativity cannot even be intelligibly 

 expressed unless Absolute Existence is affirmed. 

 In this last assertion our philosophy declares 

 itself antagonistic to Positivism. For the Posi- 

 tive Philosophy, refusing to deal with anything 

 beyond the immediate content of observed facts, 

 utterly ignores the Absolute Existence which 

 is manifested in the world of phenomena, nei- 

 ther affirming nor denying it. I shall point out 

 hereafter the complicated embarrassment in 

 which this indifferent attitude has left the Posi- 

 tive Philosophy. It must suffice now to insist 

 upon the fact that any philosophy which, like 

 the system here expounded, affirms Absolute 

 Existence is by such affirmation fundamentally 

 distinguished from Positivism. Because our 

 philosophy, like Positivism, rejects all ontologi- 

 cal speculation ; and because, like Positivism, it 

 seeks to found itself upon scientific doctrines 

 and employ none but scientific methods ; and 

 because, moreover, it is arrayed, like Positiv- 

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