94 COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. [pt. I. 



sophy with Positivism, and thus to accredit us with a whole 

 group of opinions which we unreservedly repudiate. Our 

 philosophy, however, is quite as distinct from Positivism as 

 it is from Idealism or Scepticism, or from the so-called 

 Critical Philosophy of Kant. In all these systems we re- 

 cognize a germ of truth ; to all of them we acknowledge our 

 indebtedness for sundry all-important suggestions; but to 

 none of them do we owe allegiance. 



In the case of Positivism, the error is, for reasons just now 

 indicated, one which is likely to be often committed. And 

 on this account I shall, in the course of the following ex- 

 position, have frequent occasion to examine and criticize the 

 opinions characteristic of the Positive Philosophy. By the time 

 we have arrived at the end of our journey, no possible excuse 

 will be left available for those who would seek to identify our 

 philosophy with Positivism. 



But now for this system of philosophy, which, in our crude 

 outline-sketch, is seen to be different from the systems of 

 Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Kant, Hamilton, and Comte, some 

 characteristic title is surely needed.. There are, indeed, grave 

 objections to be urged against fettering philosophy with 

 names which may very soon come to connote divers unes- 

 sential opinions of which philosophy would be glad to rid 

 itself. Nevertheless we cannot get along without names. If 

 only to avoid tedious circumlocution, some name is needed 

 by which to designate this philosophy which has been rudely 

 delineated. The required name is suggested by the definition 

 of the scope of philosophy given in the second chapter of 

 this work. It was there shown that, while acknowledging a 

 common genesis with science and with ordinary knowledge, 

 philosophy has still to concern itself with those widest truths 

 which hold throughout all classes of phenomena, and with 

 which science, restricted as it is to the investigation of special 

 classes of phenomena, is incompetent to deal. In other 

 words, we declared the scope of our philosophy to be the 



