Metaphysics : a study in first principles /
"That works on metaphysics are always useless, and generally absurd, is the profound conviction of many. This conviction, indeed, has seldom been reached by reflection, but is the outcome of echo, hearsay, and party-tradition. Whether in the views herewith presented I have grasped any truth; or...
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
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New York :
Harper & Brothers,
1882.
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| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
| Summary: | "That works on metaphysics are always useless, and generally absurd, is the profound conviction of many. This conviction, indeed, has seldom been reached by reflection, but is the outcome of echo, hearsay, and party-tradition. Whether in the views herewith presented I have grasped any truth; or whether, by long brooding in solitude, I have fallen a prey to some idol of the speculative den, must be left to the reader to decide. I am encouraged, however, to hope that I have not gone wholly astray by the fact that there is nothing unheard-of in the results reached. Leibnitz furnishes the starting-point, Herbart supplies the method, and the conclusions reached are essentially those of Lotze. I have reached them, for the most part, by strictly independent reflection; but, so far as their character is concerned, there would be no great misrepresentation in calling them Lotzian. So much concerning pedigree. The speculative significance of theism and of freedom has been especially emphasized in these pages. I have divided the work into three parts, whose titles are strongly suggestive of the ancient scholastic treatises on metaphysics. But the resemblance does not go beyond the titles; and these have been used as indicating better than any others the natural divisions of the subject. Ontology, or existence in general; cosmology, or cosmical existence and processes; and psychology, or psychical existence and processes, are the divisions which reflection upon experience immediately suggests. Of course, it is not expected to reach a knowledge of details by the way of speculation, but only to reach an outline-conception of reality which shall be valid for all details, and within which all specific study must be carried on"--Preface. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
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| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (xiii, 534 pages) |
| Format: | Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. |
| ISBN: | 9780243636044 0243636040 |