70 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



significance of which did not remain unnoticed by the 

 representatives of the older schools of philosophical 

 thought. This so-called scientific philosophy does not 

 necessarily exclude a regard for the highest questions 

 of systematic philosophy, an interest in the great reali- 

 ties, the quest for which has always been the principal 

 prerogative of philosophy ; but this interest is being 

 kept in suspense as premature, forming frequently the 

 inevitable background and sustaining impulse, but not 

 the object of philosophic thought in our day. On the 

 other hand, some representatives of this scientific philo- 

 sophy have openly disavowed all intention of dealing 

 with the great World-and-Life problem ; separate schools 

 have reproached each other with a taint of metaphysics, 

 maintaining that such a study does not legitimately exist 

 at all, being merely a waste and corruption of useful 

 thought. Modern language, notably in France and 

 England, has coined such terms as " the Unknowable," 

 " the Incognoscible," and " Agnosticism," in order to give 

 expression to this extreme view. Others have been more 

 cautious, taking refuge in some current phrases such as 

 " the Unconscious," " the Subconscious," or " the Sub- 

 liminal self." To all these thinkers, whether they belong 

 to the bolder or to the more cautious school, general 

 philosophy, apart from the several philosophical sciences, 

 still has a special and well - defined meaning. They 

 recognise that you must step outside of the separate 

 sciences and assume a more general position if you wish 

 to satisfy the intellectual craving of the human mind. 

 They demand an analysis and a critical estimate of the 



