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is road 724 ^ H E Ii E A T> E -R, [No. 2...
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ESSAYS IPROM THE "EDINBURGH REVIEW." Ess...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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The Future Of German Philosophy. Gegenrr...
; , - ¦¦ ¦• • - « -. . r > a ~ nn njdls " iruit" can be obtained . In fact , the SS ° ^ na ^ H ? ar labou « to map out the which fctoSSlS 3 R-SSf abused of being the originator of the French «^ + iS , S PhiiosoDhy , he is , on the other hand , as in the present work , ™™ Sl for ha ^ g formed a step towards the speculative systems of G ^ maty in ^ ttiig ideas of reaction , thus severing ideas from things . TtSrs & va Professor Grippe , is the fundamental error of philosophy , and , from ? £ aeSS downwards , has issued in nothing but the bewilder-£ 2 ot of the human intellect . Kant ' s classification of Infinity and Universality as ideas a priori , and of Space and Time as purely subjective forms of the intelligence , is a further elaboration of this fundamental
. »«« . ThpM » Mra « t terms on which speculation has built its nuge _ error . These abstract terms on which speculation has built its nuge fabrics are simply the x and y by which we mark the boundary of our knowledge : they have no value except in connexion with the concrete . The abstract is derived from the concrete : what , then , can we expect from a philosophy the essence of which , is the derivation of the concrete from the abstract ? The chief argument in favour of a priori ideas , as insisted on by Leibnitz and Kant is , that they can never be arrived at by induction ; that induction may lead to the general but never to the universal , and that , nevertheless , this idea of universality is found in speech and in thought with the mark of necessity . But this argument will not bear a rigid examination . The language of all peoples soon attains to the expressions in the
all , universal , necessary , but these expressions have their origin purely observations of the senses ; they are simply a practical expedient , and are valued only under certain well-known and presupposed conditions . To isolate such expressions , to operate with them apart from experience , to exalt their relative value into an absolute value , to deduce knowledge from them alone , and to make them a standing point higher than all experience—this , which is what * Partnenides and all speculative philosophers since him taye'done , is an attempt to poise the universe on one ' s head , and no wonder if dizziness and delusion are the consequence . These views are familiar enough to us in England , but to find them urged by a German professor is not so familiar . A system of logic , says Herr Gruppe , which assigns the first place to general ideas , and makes them prior to judgment , inverts the true order of things . The true object of investigation is the formation of ideas from ludements . and in order io ascertain the law of their formation , we must
direct our observation to those cases in which a new judgment or perception occurs , and is embodied in language , to the mental process which takes a discovery in natural science is made and is expressed in words , to the place when development of language , and to the application of language by children . In these three ways the formation of" general ideas is dailycarried forward . According to these tests , every judgment exhibits itself as a comparison , or perception of likeness in the midst of difference : the metaphor is no mere ornament of speech , but belongs to its essence , though usage gradually dispenses with it . When we say the evening sky is red , thelily is white , it may seem as if red and white were independent , immediate ideas ; not so , when we say the sky is rose-red or rosy , tie lily snowwhite or snowy . Again , when we hear a child call the neighbour ' s dog , not a dog , but Caro , because its own dog is named Caro , we see the origin of the idea of speciesor of general ideas ; this is the first step towards the
, remotest abstractions . A consideration of examples , taken from the doctrines of natural science , shows , what has hitherto been overlooked by logicians , that every true judgment inevitably alters the idea both of the subject arid predicate . Thus , when we say granite is volcanic , we modify both the idea of granite and of the predicate volcanic : a new quality is attributed to granite , and the predicate volcanic receives a wider extension . Kant , then , was mistaken in regarding synthetical and analytical judgments as two distinct classes . The true statement is , that every analytical judgment has previously been synthetic , and every synthetic judgment is such only once , and immediately , becomes analytic . B y a synthetic judgment , the idea , of the predicate passes into tbat of the subject , and is incorporated with it , so that when I repeat this judgment it is necessarily analytic . Thus ,
from the simple act of judgment we ascend to the formation of ideas , to their modification , and their generalisation . And by a series of ascending generalisations we are led to the most comprehensive , abstract ideas . But by the side of these abstract ideas , to which we attain by an ascent from positive particulars , there is another set of ideas which owe tlieir origin to imprecise expressions and mere devices of language , by which we bridge over our . ignorance or eke out our limitation , and singularly enough these are the very ideas which have been enthroned as the absolute . Professor Gruppe , in common with many before him , makes war against the syllogism as upetitio principii ^ and even seems to reject it altogether as an instrument . He seems to us not to have rightly apprehended Mill's
analysis of the syllogism and the function he assigns to it , since he makes it an objection to that writer's views that he gives an important place to deduction in his method . Deduction , as Mill shows , is not properly opposed to induction but to experiment , and is a means of registering and using the results of induction , indispensable to any great progress in science . But these are questions which this is not the p lace to discuss . What then , asks Herr Gruppe in conclusion , is the future sphere of Philosophy ? It must renounce metaphysics : it must renounce the ambitious attempt to form a theory of the universe , to know things in their causes and first principles . But in its function of determining logic or method , it is still the centre and heart of human knowledge , and it has to apply tliis method to the investigation of Psychology , with its subordinate department ^ Esthetics ; to Ethics ; and to the principles of Jurisprudence . A sufficient task !
These are rather abstruse subjects to enter on in a short space , but we have at least been able to present one point of interest to our readers , in the fact that a German professor of philosophy renounces the attempt to climb to heaven by the rainbow bridge of * the high priori road , " and is content numbly to use his muscles in treading the uphill a posteriori path which will lead , not indeed to heaven , but to an eminence whence we may eee very bright and blessed things on earth ,
Is Road 724 ^ H E Ii E A T> E -R, [No. 2...
is road 724 ^ H E Ii E A T > E -R , [ No . 279 , Battopay ,
Essays Iprom The "Edinburgh Review." Ess...
ESSAYS IPROM THE " EDINBURGH REVIEW . " Essays ; selected from Contributions to the " Edinburgh Review . " By Henry Rogei In Three Volumes . New edition . ' Longnio The most important essay in this Miscellany is the one on " Season ai Faith ; their Claims and Conflicts , " with an appendix containing an atta < on Strauss . We say it is important because Mr . Rogers has obtained a cei tain name as an apologist , and not because the essay contains any very in portant matter . Mr . Rogers , so far as we can see , has never been at tl pains thoroughly to analyse the nature of Faith , or to find any grounds fc
its existence , independently of a deficiency in the Christian evidence whic requires something to supply it . Analogies drawn from the trust we repos in the knowledge or advice of other people , or which a child reposes in tL direction of its parent , are totally irrelevant . In these cases there is r attempt to crush a doubt , or keep objections out of sight . There is a prc visional confidence , given on sufficient grounds , and withdrawn the momei the grounds cease to be sufficient . Moreover , this confidence's of a pract cal , not of a speculative , kind . It regulates our actions , which must be choice between alternatives , but it does not commit our intellects to th dogmatic assertion of that which we doubt or know to be false .
Mr . Rogers is equally at fault with regard to probability . He admit that the evidence for Christianity is probable only ( faith making up what i wanted for affirmation ) , and then he tells you , with Butler , that probability is the guide of life . The guide of life of course it is—that is , of action ; bu it is not the guide of speculation—at 16 * ast it leads in speculation only t probable truth . We act on a balance of probabilities , because we must d so or not act at all ; but we do not call these probabilities certainties , o formulate them into dogmatic creeds . It is hard , indeed , to conceiv < that such a supposition could bo entertained for a moment by any man win really knows what conviction is . Mr . Rogers , therefore , must take othe ground . He must either prove that the historical evidences of Christianity uke the psychological evidences of morality , are not probable , but certain or he must show on some rational grounds , apart from metaphors am tropes , that the historical evidences of Christianity have a special claim where they are deficient , to be supplied by faith .
Mr . Rogers unfortunately belongs to that school of apologists , who in stead of trying to enter into the doubts and difficulties of sceptics ( which considering the aspect Christendom now presents , can hardly be ipso facti criminal ) , sets himself to work to put them down by chopping logic and U stop their moutlis . He has borrowed from Butler the universally applica ble , and therefore almost universally -worthless , argument from analogy ; ant this he uses indiscriminately upon everybody , as a policeman uses bis truncheon on a crowd . In this way he may break some heads ; but he will not satisfy a single heart . We advise him first to do that which Ms Mastci most unconscientiously failed to * do—to analyse the argument from analogy and see how far he is really justified in reasoning from nature to revelation from the body to the soul , from the temporal to the eternal destiny o
man . Mr . Rogers is a very despotic logician , and very intolerant of a rbgica slip in his opponents . Let him reconsider the following page of his essay and learn charity : — Secondly , we are fully disposed to concede to the objector that there are , in tin bpoks of Scripture , not only apparent but real discrepancies , —a point which many <> the advocates of Christianity are , indeed , reluctant to admit , but which , we think , m candid advocate will feel to be the less true . Nevertheless , even such an advocate o the Scriptures may justly contend that the very reasons which necessitate this admi-v sion of discrepancies also reduce them to such a limit that they do not affect , in th * slightest degree , the substantial credibility of the sacred records ; and in our judgment Christians have unwisely damaged their cause , and given , a needless advantage to th < infidel , by denying that any discrepancies exist , or by endeavouring to prove thai they do not- The discrepancies to which we refer are just those which , in the courst of the transmission of ancient books , divine or human , through many Ages , —theii
constant transcription by different ha / ids , —tlieir translation into various languages , — may not only be expected to occur , but must occur , unless there be a perj > etual series of most minute and ludicrous miracles—certainly never promised , and as certainly never performed—to counteract all the effects of negligence and inadvertence , tt guide the pen of every transcriber to infallible accuracy , and to prevent liis ever de viating into any casual error ! Such miraculous intervention , we need not say , has never been pleaded for by any apologist of Christianity ; has certainly never boon promised ; and , if it had , —since we see , as a matter of fact , that the promise lias never been fulfilled , —the whole of Christianity would full to the ground . But then , from a large induction , we know that the limits within which discrepancies and errors from such causes -will occur , must be very moderate ; we know , from numberless examples of other writings , what the maximum is , —and that it leaven their substantial authenticity untouched and unimpeached . No one supposes the writings of Plato and Cicero , of Thucydides and Tacitus , of Bacon or Shakspeare , fundamental ly vitiated by the like discrepancies , errors , and absurdities which time and inadvertence have occasioned .
a scholar and a conscientious man . In freely examining the documentary evidences of Christianity , ho has only exercised the aamo privilege nnd performed the some duty tliat Mr . Rogera ' s ancestors exercised nnd performed for him in freely examining the claims and evidences of the Church of Rome . And } > therefore , to tell such a man to " rclnpso into his native stolidity , " & c . & c ., is neither wise nor just . Do let us remember that in this momentous controversy we are all aliko interested in finding the truth , ami learn on nil accounts to show courtesy and charity , so long as we have to deal witU honest men .
One would suppose that the difference between errors of transcription , such as occur in the manuscripts of the classics , and the discrepancies alleged to exist between statements in the Gospels , as between the genealogies and the accounts of the birth of Christ , could scarcely have been overlooked by any candid controversialist . We have said that Mr . Rogers ' s mode of argument ia objectionable : his tone is often equally bo . Strauss may have erred , and if he has erred Mr . Rogers will do him as well as others a service by confuting him . But he haa written learnedly and conscientiously , and he is entitled to the treatment of .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 28, 1855, page 724, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/ldr_28071855/page/16/
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