passions, and not at all concerning our own thinking, since reflection
brings to a stop the process to which it attends, and thus destroys its
object. The sole source of knowledge is external sense-perception. In his
_Positive Polity_ Comte subsequently added a seventh fundamental science,
ethics or anthropology.
Sociology,[1] the elevation of which to the rank of a positive science is
the principal aim of our philosopher, uses the same method as the natural
sciences, namely, the interrogation and interpretation of experience by
means of induction and deduction, only that here the usual relation of
these two instruments of knowledge is reversed. Between inorganic and
organic philosophy, both of which proceed from the known to the unknown,
there is this difference, that in the former the advance is from the
elements, as that which alone is directly accessible, to the whole which is
composed of them, while in the latter the opposite is the case, since here
the whole is better known than the individual parts of which it consists.
Hence, in inorganic science the laws of the composite phenomena are
obtained by deduction (from the laws of the simple facts inductively
discovered) and confirmed by observation; in sociology, on the other
hand, the laws are found through (historical) experience, and deductively
verified (from the nature of man as established by biology) only in the
sequel. Since the phenomena of society are determined not merely by the
general laws of human nature, but, above all, by the growing influence of
the past, historical studies must form the basis of sociological inquiry.
[Footnote 1: Cf. Krohn: _Beiträge zur Kenntniss und Würdigung der
Soziologie, Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik_, New Series,
vols. i. and iii., 1880 and 1881.]
Of the two parts of sociology, the Statics, which investigates the
equilibrium (the conditions of the existence, the permanence, and the
coexistence of social states), and Dynamics, which investigates the
movement (the laws of the progress) of social phenomena, the first was in
essence established by Aristotle. The fundamental concept of the Statics
is the _consensus_, the harmony, solidarity, or mutual dependence of the
members of the social organism. All its parts, science, art, religion,
politics, industry, must be considered together; they stand in such
intimate harmony and correlation that, for every important change of
condition in one of these parts, we may be certain of finding
corresponding changes in all the others, as its causes and effects.
Besides the selfish propensities, there dwell in man an equally original,
but intrinsically weaker, impulse toward association, which instinctively
leads him to seek the society of his fellows without reflection on the
advantages to be expected therefrom, and a moderate degree of
benevolence. As altruism conflicts with egoism, so the reason, together
with the impulse to get ahead, which can only be satisfied through
labor, is in continual conflict with the inborn disinclination to regulated
activity (especially to mental effort). The character of society depends on
the strength of the nobler incentives, that is, the social inclinations and
intellectual vivacity in opposition to the egoistic impulses and natural
inertness. The former nourish the progressive, the latter the conservative
spirit. Women are as much superior to men in the stronger development of
their sympathy and sociability as they are inferior in insight and reason.
Society is a group of families, not of individuals, and domestic life is
the foundation, preparation, and pattern for social life, Comte praises the
family, the connecting link between the individual and the species, as a
school of unselfishness, and approves the strictness of the Catholic Church
in regard to the indissolubility of the marriage relation. He remarks the
evil consequences of the constantly increasing division of labor, which
makes man egoistic and narrow-minded, since it hides rather than reveals
the social significance of the employment of the individual and its
connection with the welfare of the community, and seeks for a means of
checking them. Besides the universal education of youth, he demands
the establishment of a spiritual power to bring the general interest
continually to the minds of the members of all classes and avocations, to
direct education, and to enjoy the same authority in moral and intellectual
matters as is conceded to the astronomer in the affairs of his department.
The function of this power would be to occupy the position heretofore held
by the clergy. Comte conceives it as composed of positive philosophers,
entirely independent of the secular authorities, but in return cut off from
political influence and from wealth. Secular authority, on the other hand,
he wishes put into the hands of an aristocracy of capitalists, with the
bankers at the head of these governing leaders of industry.
The Dynamics, the science of the temporal succession of social phenomena,
makes use of the principle of development. The progress of society,
which is to be regarded as a great individual, consists in the growing
predominance of the higher, human activities over the lower and animal. The
humanity in us, it is true, will never attain complete ascendency over the
animality, but we can approach nearer and nearer to the ideal, and it is
our duty to aid in this march of civilization. Although the law of progress
holds good for all sides of mental life, for art, politics, and morals,
as well as for science, nevertheless the most important factor in the
evolution of the human race is the development of the intellect as the
guiding power in us (though not in itself the strongest). Awakened first by
the lower wants, the intellect assumes in increasing measure the guidance
of human operations, and gives a determinate direction to the feelings. The
passions divide men, and, without the guidance of the speculative faculty,
would mutually cripple one another; that which alone unites them into
a collection force is a common belief, an idea. Ideas are related to
feeling--to quote a comparison from John Stuart Mill's valuable treatise
_Auguste Comte and Positivism_, 3d ed., 1882, a work of which we have made
considerable use--as the steersman who directs the ship is to the steam
which drives it forward. Thus the history of humanity has been determined
by the history of man's intellectual convictions, and this in turn by the
three familiar stages in the theory of the universe.
With the development
from the theological to the positive mode of thought is most intimately
connected, further, the transition from the military to the industrial
mode of life. As the religious spirit prepares the way for the scientific
spirit, so without the dominion of the military spirit industry could not
have been developed. It was only in the school of war that the earliest
societies could learn order; slavery was beneficial in that through it
labor was imposed upon the greater part of mankind in spite of their
aversion to it. The political preponderance of the legists corresponds to
the intermediate, metaphysical stage. The sociological law (discovered by
Comte in the year 1822) harmonizes also with the customary division which
separates the ancient from the modern world by the Middle Ages.
In his philosophy of history Comte gives the further application of these
principles. Here he has won commendation even from his opponents for a
sense of justice which merits respect and for his comprehensive view. The
outlooks and proposals for the future here interspersed were in later
writings[1] worked out into a comprehensive theory of the regeneration
of society; the extravagant character of which has given occasion to his
critics to make a complete division between the second,
"subjective or
sentimental," period of his thinking, in which the philosopher is said to
be transformed into the high priest of a new religion, and the first, the
positivistic period, although the major part of the qualities pointed out
as characteristic of the former are only intensifications of some which may
be shown to have been present in the latter. Beneath the surface of the
most sober inquiry mystical and dictatorial tendencies pulsate in Comte
from the beginning, and science was for him simply a means to human
happiness. But now he no longer demands the independent pursuit of science
in order to the attainment of this end, but only the believing acceptance
of its results. The intellect is to be placed under the dominion of the
heart, and only such use made of it as promises a direct advantage for
humanity; the determination of what problems are most important at a given
time belongs to the priesthood. The systematic unity or harmony of the
mind demands this dominion of the feelings over thought.
The religion of
positivism, which has "love for its principle, order for its basis, and
progress for its end," is a religion without God, and without any other
immortality than a continuance of existence in the grateful memory of
posterity. The dogmas of the positivist religion are scientific principles.
Its public _cultus_ with nine sacraments and a large number of annual
festivals, is paid to the _Grand Être_ "Humanity" (which is not omnipotent,
but, on account of its composite character, most dependent, yet infinitely
superior to any of its parts); and, besides this, space, the earth, the
universe, and great men of the past are objects of reverence. Private
devotion consists in the adoration of living or dead women as our guardian
angels. The _ethics_ of the future declares the good of others to be the
sole moral motive to action (altruism). Comte's last work, the _Philosophy
of Mathematics_, 1856, indulges in a most remarkable numerical mysticism.
The historical influence exercised by Comte through his later writings is
extremely small in comparison with that of his chief work. Besides
Blignières and Robinet, E. Littré, the well-known author of the
_Dictionnaire de la Langue Française_ (1863 _seq_.) who was the most
eminent of Comte's disciples and the editor of his _Collected Works_ (1867
_seq_.), has written on the life and work of the master.
Comte's school
divided into two groups--the apostates, with Littré (1801-81) at their
head, who reject the subjective phase and hold fast to the earlier
doctrine, and the faithful, who until 1877, when a new division between
strict and liberal Comteans took place within this group, gathered about P.
Laffitte (born 1823).[2] The leader of the English positivists is Frederic
Harrison (born 1831). Positivistic societies exist also in Sweden, Brazil,
Chili, and elsewhere. Positivism has been developed in an independent
spirit by J.S. Mill and Herbert Spencer.
[Footnote 1: _Positivist Catechism_, 1852 [English translation by Congreve,
1858, 2d ed., 1883]; _System of Positive Polity_, 4
vols., 1851-54 [English
translation, 1875-77]. Cf. Pünjer, _A. Comtes "Religion der Menschheit_" in
the _Jahrbücher für protestantische Theologie_, 1882.]
[Footnote 2: On this division cf. E. Caro, _M. Littré et le Positivisme_,
1883, and Herm. Gruber (S.J.), _Der Positivismus vom Tode Comtes bis auf
unsere Tage_, 1891.]
The following brief remarks on the course of French philosophy may also be
added. Against the sensationalism of Condillac as continued by Cabanis,
Destutt de Tracy (see above, pp. 259-260), and various physiologists, a
twofold reaction asserted itself. One manifestation of this proceeded from
the _theological school_, represented by the
"traditionalists" Victor de Bonald (1818), Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821; _St.
Petersburg Soirées_,
1821), and F. de Lamennais (1782-1854), who, however, after his break with
the Church (_Words of a Believer_, 1834) developed in his _Sketch of a
Philosophy_, 1841 _seq_., an ontological system after Italian and German
models. The other came from the _spiritualistic school_, at whose head
stood Maine de Biran[1] (1766-1824; _On the Foundations of Psychology_; his
_Works_ have been edited by Cousin, 1841, Naville, 1859, and Bertrand) and
Royer Collard (1763-1845). Their pupil Victor Cousin (1792-1867; _Works_,
1846-50), who admired Hegel also, became the head of the _eclectic school_.
Cousin will neither deny metaphysics with the Scotch, nor construe
metaphysics _a priori_ with the Germans, but with Descartes bases it on
psychology. For a time an idealist of the Hegelian type (infinite and
finite, God and the world, are mutually inseparable; the Ideas reveal
themselves in history, in the nations, in great men), he gradually sank
back to the position of common sense. His adherents, among whom Théodore
Jouffroy (died 1842) was the most eminent, have done special service in the
history of philosophy. From Cousin's school, which was opposed by P. Leroux
and J. Reynaud, have come Ravaisson, Saisset, Jules Simon, P. Janet (born
1823),[2] and E. Caro (born 1826; _The Philosophy of Goethe_, 1866). Kant
has influenced Charles Renouvier (born 1817; _Essays in General Criticism_,
4 vols., 1854-64) and E. Vacherot (born 1809; _Metaphysics and Science_,
1858, 2d ed., 1863; _Science and Consciousness_, 1872).
[Footnote 1: Cf. E. König in _Philosophische Monatshefte_, vol. xxv. 1889,
p.160 _seq_.]
[Footnote 2: Janet: _History of Political Science in its Relations to
Morals_, 1858, 3d ed., 1887; _German Materialism of the Present Day_, 1864,
English translation by Masson, 1866: _The Family_, 1855; _The Philosophy of
Happiness_, 1862; _The Brain and Thought_, 1867; _Elements of Morals_,
1869 [English translation by Corson, 1884]; _The Theory of Morals_, 1874
[English translation by Mary Chapman, 1883]; _Final Causes_, 1876 [English
translation by Affleck, with a preface by Flint, new ed., 1883].]
Among other thinkers of reputation we may mention the socialist Henri de
Saint-Simon (1760-1825; _Selected Works_, 1859), the physiologist Claude
Bernard (1813-78), the positivist H. Taine (1828-93; _The Philosophy of
Art_, English translation by Durand, 2d ed., 1873; _On Intelligence_, 1872,
English translation by Haye, 1871), E. Renan (1823-92; _The Life of
Jesus_, 1863, English translation by Wilbour, _Philosophical Dialogues and
Fragments_--English, 1883), the writer on aesthetics and ethics J.M. Guyau
(_The Problems of Contemporary Aesthetics_, 1884; _Sketch of an Ethic
without Obligation or Sanction_, 1885; _The Irreligion of the Future_,
1887), Alfred Fouillée _(The Future of Metaphysics founded on Experience_,
1889; _Morals, Art, and Religion according to Guyau_, 1889; _The
Evolutionism of the Idea-Forces_, 1890), and the psychologist Th. Ribot,[1]
editor of the _Revue Philosophique_ (from 1876).
[Footnote 1: Ribot: _Heredity_, 2d ed., 1882 [English translation, 1875];
_The Diseases of Memory_, 1881 [English translation, 1882]; _The Diseases
of the Will_, 1883 [English. 1884]; _The Diseases of Personality_, 1885
[English, 1887]; _The Psychology of Attention_, 1889
[English, 1890];
_German Psychology of To-day_, 2d ed., 1885 [English translation by
Baldwin, 1886].]
%3. Great Britain and America.%
Prominent among the British philosophers of the nineteenth century[1]
are Hamilton, Bentham, J.S. Mill, and Spencer. Hamilton is the leading
representative of the Scottish School; Bentham is known as the advocate of
utilitarianism; Mill, an exponent of the traditional empiricism of English
thinking, develops the theory of induction and the principle of utility;
Spencer combines an agnostic doctrine of the absolute and thoroughgoing
evolution in the phenomenal world into a comprehensive philosophical
system.[2] In recent years there has been a reaction against empirical
doctrines on the basis of neo-Kantian and neo-Hegelian principles. Foremost
among the leaders of this movement we may mention T.H.
Green.
[Footnote 1: Cf. Harald Höffding, _Einleitung in die englische Philosophie
unserer Zeit_ (Danish, 1874), German (with alterations and additions by the
author) by H. Kurella, 1889; David Masson, _Recent British Philosophy_,
1865, 3d ed., 1877; Ribot, _La Psychologie Anglaise Contemporaine_, 1870,
2d ed., 1875 [English, 1874] Guyau, _La Morale Anglaise Contemporaine_,
1879 [Morris, _British Thought and Thinkers_, 1880; Porter, "On English and
American Philosophy," Ueberweg's _History_, English translation, vol.
ii. pp. 348-460; O. Pfleiderer, _Development of Theology_, 1890, book
iv.--TR.]]
[Footnote 2: Cf. on Mill and Spencer, Bernh. Pünjer, _Jahrbücher für
protestantische Theologie_, 1878.]
The Scottish philosophy has been continued in the nineteenth century by
James Mackintosh (_Dissertation on the Progress of Ethical Philosophy_,
1830, 3d ed., 1863), and William Whewell (_History of the Inductive
Sciences_, 3d ed., 1857; _Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences_, 1840, 3d
ed., 1858-60). Its most important representative is Sir William Hamilton[1]
of Edinburgh (1788-1856), who, like Whewell, is influenced by Kant.
Hamilton bases philosophy on the facts of consciousness, but, in antithesis
to the associational psychology, emphasizes the mental activity of
discrimination and judgment. Our knowledge is relative, and relations its
only object. Consciousness can never transcend itself, it is bound to
the antithesis of subject and object, and conceives the existent under
relations of space and time. Hence the unconditioned is inaccessible to
knowledge and attainable by faith alone. Among Hamilton's followers belong
Mansel (_Metaphysics_, 3d. ed., 1875; _Limits of Religions Thought_, 5th
ed., 1870) and Veitch. The Scottish doctrine was vigorously opposed by J.F.
Ferrier (1808-64; _Institutes of Metaphysics_, 2d ed., 1856), who himself
developed an idealistic standpoint.
[Footnote 1: Hamilton: _Discussions on Philosophy and Literature_, 1852, 3d
ed., 1866; _Lectures on Metaphysics_, 2d ed., 1860, and on _Logic_, 2d ed.,
1866, edited by his pupils, Mansel and Veitch; _Reid's Works_, with notes
and dissertations, 1846, 7th ed., 1872. On Hamilton cf.
Veitch, 1882, 1883
[Monck, 1881].]
In the United States the Scottish philosophy has exercised a wide
influence. In recent times it has been strenuously advocated, chiefly in
the spirit of Reid, by James McCosh (a native of Scotland, but since 1868
in America; _The Intuitions of the Mind_, 3d ed., 1872; _The Laws of
Discursive Thought_, new ed., 1891; _First and Fundamental Truths_, 1889);
while in Noah Porter (died 1892; _The Human Intellect_, new ed., 1876; _The
Elements of Moral Science_, 1885) it appears modified by elements from
German thinking.
Jeremy Bentham[1] (1748-1832) is noteworthy for his attempt to revive
Epicureanism in modern form. Virtue is the surest means to pleasure, and
pleasure the only self-evident good. Every man strives after happiness, but
not every one in the right way. The honest man calculates correctly, the
criminal falsely; hence a careful calculation of the value of the various
pleasures, and a prudent use of the means to happiness, is the first
condition of virtue; in this the easily attainable minor joys, whose
summation amounts to a considerable quantum, must not be neglected. The
value of a pleasure is measured by its intensity, duration, certainty,
propinquity, fecundity in the production of further pleasure, purity or
freedom from admixture of consequent pain, and extent to the greatest
possible number of persons. Every virtuous action results in a balance of
pleasure. Inflict no evil on thyself or others from which a balance of good
will not result. The end of morality is the "greatest happiness of the
greatest number," in the production of which each has first to care for
his own welfare: whoever injures himself more than he serves others acts
immorally, for he diminishes the sum of happiness in the world; the
interest of the individual coincides with the interest of society. The two
classes of virtues are prudence and benevolence. The latter is a natural,
though not a disinterested affection: happiness enjoyed with others is
greater than happiness enjoyed alone. Love is a pleasure-giving extension
of the individual; we serve others to be served by them.
[Footnote 1: Bentham: _Introduction to the Principles of Morals and
Legislation_, 1789; new ed., 1823, reprinted 1876; _Deontology_, 1834,
edited by Bowring, who also edited the _Works_, 1838-43.
_The Principles
of Civil and Criminal Legislation_, edited in French from Bentham's
manuscripts by his pupil Etienne Dumont (1801, 2d ed., 1820; English by
Hildreth, 5th ed., 1887), was translated into German with notes by F.E.
Beneke, 1830.]
Associationalism has been reasserted by James Mill (1773-1836; _Analysis of
the Phenomena of the Human Mind_, 1829), whose influence lives on in the
work of his greater son. The latter, John Stuart Mill,[1] was born in
London 1806, and was from 1823 to 1858 a secretary in the India House;
after the death of his wife he lived (with the exception of two years of
service as a Member of Parliament) at Avignon; his death occurred in
1873. Mill's _System of Logic_ appeared in 1843, 9th ed., 1875; his
_Utilitarianism_, 1863, new ed., 1871; _An Examination of Sir William
Hamilton's Philosophy_, 1865, 5th ed., 1878; his notes to the new edition
of his father's work, _Analysis of the Phenomena of the Human Mind_, 2d
ed., 1878, also deserve notice. With the phenomenalism of Hume and the
(somewhat corrected) associational psychology of his father as a basis,
Mill makes experience the sole source of knowledge, rejecting _a priori_
and intuitive elements of every sort. Matter he defines as a "permanent
possibility of sensation"; mind is resolved into "a series of feelings with
a background of possibilities of feeling," even though the author is not
unaware of the difficulty involved in the question how a series of feelings
can be aware of itself as a series. Mathematical principles, like all
others, have an experiential origin--the peculiar certitude ascribed to
them by the Kantians is a fiction--and induction is the only fruitful
method of scientific inquiry (even in mental science).
The syllogism is
itself a concealed induction.
[Footnote 1: Cf. on Mill. Taine, _Le Positivisme Anglais_, 1864 [English,
by Haye]; the objections of Jevons _(Contemporary Review_, December, 1877
_seq_., reprinted in _Pure Logic and other Minor Works_, 1890; cf. _Mind_,
vol. xvi. pp. 106-110) to Mill's doctrine of the inductive character of
geometry, his treatment of the relation of resemblance, and his exposition
of the four methods of experimental inquiry in their relation to the law of
causation; and the finely conceived essay on utilitarianism, by C.
Hebler, _Philosophische Aufsãtze_, 1869, pp. 35-66.
[Also Mill's own
_Autobiography_, 1873: Bain's _John Stuart Mill, a Criticism_, 1882; and
T.H. Green, Lectures on the _Logic, Works_, vol. ii.--
TR.]]
When I assert the major premise the inference proper is already made, and
in the conclusion the comprehensive formula for a number of particular
truths which was given in the premise is merely explicated, interpreted.
Because universal judgments are for him merely brief expressions for
aggregates of particular truths, Mill is able to say that all knowledge is
generalization, and at the same time to argue that all inference is from
particulars to particulars. Infere