CHAPTER I 



THE OBJECT AND SCOPE OF PHILOSOPHY 



KANT has said that the business of philosophy is 

 to answer three questions : What can I know ? 

 What ought I to do ? and For what may I hope ? 

 But it is pretty plain that these three resolve 

 themselves, in the long run, into the first. For 

 rational expectation and moral action are alike 

 based upon beliefs ; and a belief is void of justifica- 

 tion, unless its subject-matter lies within the 

 boundaries of possible knowledge, and unless its 

 evidence satisfies the conditions which experience 

 imposes as the guarantee of credibility. 



Fundamentally, then, philosophy is the answer 

 to the question, What can I know ? and it is by 

 applying itself to this problem, that philosophy is 

 properly distinguished as a special department of 

 scientific research. What is commonly called 

 science, whether mathematical, physical, or bio- 

 logical, consists of the answers which mankind 

 have been able to give to the inquiry, What 



