ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS. XV 



PAGE 



Chapter III. Scepticism 57 



§ I. The meaning of Scepticism, and § 2 its invalid 

 forms. §3. It must be hnmaneiit and 'base itself on 

 the irreconcilable conflict of the data of consciousness, 

 e.g.^ between thought and reality. 



§§ 4-14. The origin and Jlatvs of the conceptions form- 

 ing the fii'st principles of science. § 4. They are mutilated 

 anthropomorphisms, and (§ 5) cannot grasp the Becoming 

 of things. § 6. This shown in the case of Time. The 

 fiction of its discreteness. Time measured by motions 

 and motions by Time, a vicious circle. Its infinity and 

 self-contradiction. § 7. Space. Its infinity. Atomism v. 

 its infinite divisibility. Matter and Space and the Void. 

 Real and conceptual Space and the truth of geometry. 

 § 8. Motion measured by Rest, but Rest illusory. If all 

 motive is relative, what of the conservation of energy ? 

 How can there be potential energy or position in in- 

 finite Space? § 9. Matter^ an abstraction. The solidity 

 of atoms does not account for the hardness of bodies. 

 The wonders of the Ether. Action at a distance and 

 inertia. Matter a hypothesis which is not even self- 

 consistent. § 10. Force ^ only depersonalized will. The 

 interaction of bodies a theory. § 11. Causation., its 

 animistic origin. It will not work unless arbitrary isola- 

 tions and connections are made in the complex of phe- 

 nomena. Even so it involves the difficulties of an 

 infinite regress or of a First Cause, and finally, it con- 

 flicts with free will. § 12. Substance, the permanent in 

 change; no proof of this. § 13. Becoming not a cate- 

 gory, but a contradiction to thought, which science can 

 deal with only as Being and Not Being. But Being a 

 fiction, for all things become. So (§ 14) none of our 

 principles can deal with Becoming, because of the radi- 

 cal difference of thought and feeling (reality). The 

 meaning of the a priority of thought. 



§ 15. The characteristics of the Real; individual, 

 substantival, presented, becomes in Time and Space, has 

 infinite content. And of Thought, does not beco7ne in 

 Time or Space, but is valid eternally ; abstract, univer- 

 sal, discursive, discrete, adjectival, necessary. Hence, 

 § 16, a harmony of truth and fact, viz., knowledge, is 

 impossible. §§17-18. This conclusion is confirmed by 

 logic, both as to judgment, which states ideas as facts, 

 and (§ 18) as to inference, which does not even pretend 



