204 



F. F. ROGET_, ON ERNEST NAVILLE's LIFE. 



18. Spiritualism sets us free from the problem of deter- 

 minism, by recognising in the constancy of nature 

 conditions, general or particular, imposed by the 

 original Will. 



19. Spiritualism is parent to the scientific sense and 

 method. 



To make Ernest ISTaville's philosophy quite clear, there should 

 be added to the above theses those which he conceives to be 

 characteristic of materialism, idealism, and determinism, which 

 he naturally rejects. 



II. Materialism. 



1. Materialism is the system wdiich affirms that the objects 

 of sense-perceptions are the only reality. 2. Materialism 

 presents itself under two aspects : mechanism and transformism. 

 3. Transformistic materialism resolves itself by analysis into 

 mechanistic materialism. 4. Materialism is an hypothesis. 

 5. Materialism does not show a unifying principle. 6. Material- 

 ism does not succeed in unifying physical and psychic phe- 

 nomena. 7. Materialism does not succeed in unifying force 

 and matter. 8. Materialism does not succeed in explaining the 

 origin of multiplicity in beings. 9. Materialism is self-contra- 

 dictory in using the notions of reason which transcend experi- 

 ence. 10. Materialism would reject as a surplusage some of 

 the most important data of mental analysis. 11. Materialism 

 is the result of an incomplete exercise of the faculty of thought. 



III. Idealism. 



1. Idealism rests on the external existence of Ideas. 2, Ideal- 

 ism presents itself under two aspects : the idealistic origin 

 (Spinoza), or the idealistic end (Hegel) of beings and things. 



3. The absolute existence of Ideas is not germane to reason. 



4. Ideas are relations demanding, simultaneously with or 

 previously to themselves, the existence of beings or things. 



5. The fixed and rigid moulds of an idealistic conception of 

 nature (types) leave the transition from simplicity to multi- 

 plicity without means of effect. 6. The Id^es-types leave 

 no room for the notion of the infinite, for they are fixed. 

 7. Idealism favours the doctrine of inert causes. 8. Idealism 

 in the end admits the identity of opposites and is indifferent to 

 the force of contraries. 9. Idealism begets the false method of 

 rationalism. 10. Idealism denies the freedom of voluntary 

 choice. 11. Idealism cancels the ordinary distinction of right 



