LeAN SAS, Cll Ny, 
REVIEW OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY, 
A MONTHLY RECORD OF PROGRESS IN 
SCIENCE, MECHANIC ARTS AND LITERATURE. 
VOEs) Ve MARCH, 1881. NO. ut. 
PRIEOS@OPrY. 
THE SYNTHETIC PHILOSOPHY AN ORGANON OF THE SCIENCES. 
BY PROF. J. M. LONG. 
Philosophy, from whatever point of view it may begin its investigations, 
attempts the solution of the most difficult problem which can possibly engage the 
thought of the human mind. It attempts to construct a rational theory of the 
universe by the formulation of some all-embracing truth or principle which shall 
serve as the ground and explanation of all things as these appear in the bounds 
of space and in the evolutions of time. Of the deep interest which man must 
ever feel in the question of his relation to the universe, Schelling has truly said, 
‘¢Would man strive to fathom this relation? I answer, if he would not, still he 
must. He always has striven after it; and, in the future, he always will strive 
aitem tte 
The problem which philosophy attempts to solve is altogether of a different 
order from those which science deals. Science is satisfied when it can discover 
the nature of the phenomena belonging to a special province of nature, and can 
formulate the laws regulating their co-existences and sequences. Science ana- 
lizes nature into parts, in order that man may attain a point of attack by which to 
gain control over her laws and forces. On the other hand, philosophy aims to 
reduce the thought-world to unity, which has been destroyed by the analytic pro- 
cesses of science. As the mind, in order to the harmony and completeness of 
thought, demands both analysis and synthesis, so we must have both science and 
philosophy. Philosophy justifies itself to science by showing that the methods 
and fundamental ideas of the latter are inadequate to their own explanation. 
IV—44 
