Introduction to the History of Philosophy

Citation preview

INTRODUCTION to the

HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY

Joseph

B. Burgess,

M.A.

Department of Phdosophy,Los Angeles City College

McGRAW-HILL BOOK COMPANY, Tork

•

1919

J^ndon

Inc.

Copyright, 1939, by the McGraw-Hill Book Company,

Inc.

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA All rights reserved. This hook, or parts thereof,

may nothe reproduced

tn any form without permission of the publishers.

Kl

Preface

Doubtless there have been those more competent than the present author who have thought of writing a ‘^history” but have refrained through humbleness induced by reading the scholarly treatises of many who have spent years of intensive research into the original documents of the philosophic great. This effort of mine may therefore be taken to illustrate the very old and not

untrue aphorism about fools and angels. victed of

making no

The work stands consum total of philo-

original addition to the

sophic beliefs. Its claim to consideration may best spring from the possibility of its presenting an old story in a slightly different

manner; a manner which,

number

of those

who

it is

possess

hoped,

may

help to increase the

some understanding

of the greater philosophers of our Western world. If such an objective is worthy, then it is hoped that the audacity that must go with presenting yet another restatement of what philosophers have said may be

taken with that calm which has long been believed the special mark of seasoned philosophers. It has been the intention of this author to bring the philosopher a little more closely into touch with his age and with our own. In some instances and in a general way this has been possible, while in others the effort has fallen short of the goal

and the philosopher remains very much out on his particular limb. Possibly in some instances he belongs there rightfully, and to remove him from his perch would be to distort our portrait of him. The claim is not new that the true visionary belongs in a sphere apart from the run of common mortals. Certainly in some instances his utterances can be properly interpreted only upon this hypothesis. However, still

by preference the philosopher has withdrawn from the common if they shed some light upon life as perforce it must be lived. If in some way his work has not been significant in the historical march of mankind, then

if

touch, his thoughts can be important for us only

Preface

VI

men are great because they have been forces in the shaping human affairs, and in this is the justification for preserving their memories in the records of human achievement. For this reason earnest effort has been made to show, in a small way at least, great

of

something of the importance of philosophers in mankind’s adventures in the realm of ideas.

In gathering materials for this volume the author incurred a great debt to the many masters of research within the field of original sources. To mention all of them would be a long chronicle,

and to mention some but not all would be unjust. Perhaps to acknowledge none would be best, leaving it to the realization of every student of philosophy that no historical work is possible but for myriad sources of data. It is, however, becoming to express my thanks to a number of publishing houses for their kind permissioli to quote from their publications: D. Appleton-Century Company, Inc., Albert & Charles Boni, Cambridge University Press, J. M. Dent & Sons, Ltd., Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc., E. P. Dutton

& Company,

Inc.,

Fordham University

Dunlap, Harcourt, Brace & Company, Harper & Brothers, Henry Holt & Company, Houghton Mifflin Company, Longmans, Green & Company, The Macmillan Company, Oxford, Clarendon Press, Open Court Publishing Company, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, The Science Press, Charles Scribner’s Sons, D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., and Yale University Press. The author also acknowledges the generous and helpful criticism of the faculty of the department of philosophy at Los Angeles City College while the manuscript was being written. Special mention should be made of the valuable assistance rendered by Edward G. Chester and Morris R. Gaynor in collecting the materials for parts of the manuscript, and for the excellent work of Miss Nihla Stowe in the preparation of the final copy. Press, Grosset

&

Joseph B. Burgess. Los Angeles, Calif., May, 1939.

8

Contents Page

PREFACE

V Chapter I

INTRODUCTION; THE FUNCTION OF PHILOSOPHY. Chapter II

THE RISE OF GREEK SPECULATION 1.

2. 3. 4.

Why We

Start with a Study of Greek

.

The Coming of the Achaeans The Rise of Science and Its Separation from The Philosophers of Miletus ... .

.

.

Religion

.

Emergence

Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans

I4 17 1

27

.

.

14

.22 .26

....

5.

6.

of Principles

....

Thought

Chapter III

IS

REALITY DYNAMIC OR STATI C ?

.35

I

Reanalysis of Milesian Thought

35

2.

Heraclitus* Philosopher of Flux

35

Xenophanes. Commentator and Critic Eleatics. Repudiation of Flux

40

3.

4.

The

41

Chapter

IV

ATOMIC INTERPRETATIONS: MEDIATING EFFORTS

49 49 50

The Problem of Reconciliation 2 The Pluralistic Solution of Empedocles I.

3.

4.

Anaxagoras Qualitative Pluralism Leucippus and Democritus. Quantitative Atomism

Chapter

V

THE SOPHISTS AND SOCRATES 1,

The

64

Rise of the Sophists Anthropocentric Emphasis

2,

Socrates

3,

Socratic Schools

.

.

Cynic, Cyrenaic, and

Megaran

.

64 74 82

Contents

VIU

i*AGE

Chapter VI

PLATO

89

1.

Plato and His Predecessors

89

2.

Theory

93

3.

Ethics of Self-realization

of Reality

100 103

4 Theory of State

Chapter VII

ARISTOTLE

III

and Works Development of Aristotelian Philosophy

III 113

3.

Contributions to Logic

4.

Theory

1 14 I18 124 128 I31

1.

2.

Life

of

Development

5.

Practical Ethics

6.

Theory

7.

Aesthetics

of State

f

Chapter VIII

PHILOSOPHERS FOLLOWING ARISTOTLE

134

1

General Characteristics of the Period

2

Epicureanism

134 136

3

Stoicism

H3

4 Skepticism

iSS

Eclecticism

IS7

5

Chapter

IX

PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION Religious

2.

Neoplatonism

.

.

vs.

160 l6o 1 62 1 66

Natural Interests

I

.

3

The

4.

Development of Christian Dogma

1

5.

Philosophy of Augustine

1

Rise of Christianity

Chapter

X

EDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY I

General Characteristics

2.

The Proolem The Problem The Problem

3.

4.

186 186

of Universals

Realism and Nominalism

of God’s Existence of Faith

Chapter .

1

Symptoms

2

Revival of Ancient Authority Rise of the New Science

3.

of Disruption

4 Giordano Bruno

188 193

and Reason

NEW IDEAS FOR OLD

69 78

196

XI 202 202 207 209 217

Contents

IX Page

Chapter

XII

THE MODERN PERIOD EMERGES 3.

.

A. Francis Bacon

222

and Work

1

Life

2

Objections to Traditional Learning

.

.

.

222

.

.

The New Method B.

.

.

.

Thomas Hobbes

228

1.

Philosophical Status

2.

Life and

3.

Method and Materialism

Work

4. Politics, Ethics,

223

226

228 229

.

23 O

and Religion

233

.

Chapter XIII

APPROACH TO PHILOSOPHY:

R^TldNALISTIC Descartes

.

2.

and Significance . Method of Approach to Philosophy

3.

Philosophical Results

4.

Developments from the System

1.

Life

Rene 238

.

.

.

of Descartes

*238

.

.

.

.

...

.

XIV 5. RATIONALISTIC APPROACH TO PHILOSOPHY:

.

240 242 252

Chapter

Baruch

Spinoza 1.

256 256 258

Character and General Viewpoint

2.

Speculative Development

3.

Metaphysical System

261 265 268

4 Theory of Knowledge 5,

The Way

of Life

Chapter

XV

RATIONALISTIC APPROACH TO PHILOSOPHY:

Gottfried

Wilhelm Leibnitz 1.

274

Place in Philosophy

274 276 278 282 284

Metaphysics The Monadology 3. Theology The Best of Possible Worlds 4 Epistemology All Knowledge Is Innate Leibnitzian Influence Enlightenment and Romanticism 2.

Chapter

KNOWLEDGE AND

XVI

REALITY: SYSTEMS OF EMPIRICISM:

John Locke

3.

4.

Political

5.

Ethics, Religion,

2.

...

.

and Interests Theory of Knowledge Metaphysics

1.

.

3

.

Philosophy

and Education

289 289 29 1

Life

.

.

.

.

.

^

3 ^^

3^5

Contents

X

Tage

XVII

Chapter

KNOWLEDGE AND REALITY: SYSTEMS OF EMPIRICISM: George Berkeley

.

His Era and His Life

I.

Arguments against Materialism as Spirit and Idea Contemporary Deism

2

.

The Real

3

4.

.

.

.

.

.

,

.

.

Chapter

*

.

.

311 311 313

.

...

.

318 323

XVIII

KNOWLEDGE AND REALITY: SYSTEMS OF EMPIRICISM. David

Hume

329

329

2.

The Man Theory of Knowledge

3

Substance and the External World

4.

Social Philosophy

5.

Philosophy of Religion

34^ 346 352

1.

33 ^

Ethics and Politics

XIX

Chapter

BRITISH MORAL The Cambridge

1.

THEORY

...

.

359

Platonists

359

Moral Sense Theory The Earl of Shaftesbury Private Vices Are Public Benefits. Bernard Mandeville Self-love and Conscience Joseph Butler .... Doctrine of the Inner Man Adam Smith

2. 3.

4.

5

.

361

362 364 366 370

.

65. The Most Pleasure for Most People Utilitarianism

Chapter

XX

CURRENTS OF THE FRENCH ENLIGHTENMENT. ....

I. 3.

Meaning

2

Absolute Sensationalism Condillac

3.

Voice of the Second Estate Voltaire

of the

Enlightenment

4.

Diderot and the Encyclopedists

5.

Prophet of the Revolution Rousseau

Chapter

Philosophy of idealism-. 1,

Personal Characteristics

2.

Influence of Rationalism

XXI

Immanuel Kant

.

.

403 403 .

God

.

... .

.

Immediate Successors. Fichte and Schelling

Chapter

PHILOSOPHY OF IDEALISM: Life

and Place

in Idealistic

.

406 419 426

XXII

George Wilhelm Hegel

Tradition

General Position and Method yiThe Natural Order

2.

403

.

and Empiricism

Epistemology and Metaphysics Morality, Freedom, Immortality, and

383

383 38s 387 391 395

434 434

436 442

Contents

xi "Page

4 The Social Order The Absolute Order '^ 6, Hegelian Influences. .

.

445 453

457

XXIII

Chapter

PHILOSOPHY OF PESSIMISM.

Arthur Schopenhauer

461

.

Background of Pessimism 2 Appearance and Reality

461 465

1. .

3.

The

Will to Live

4 Salvation 5 . Later Pessimism .

467 468

...

473

.

XXIV POSITIVISM AND PRAGMATISM Chapter

480

.

A. The Positivistic Tradition I, »

—2

.

3.

.

.

Founding of Positivism* Comte Empirical Positivism Mill

Economic Positivism Lange, Mach, Poincare

4 The School .

*

of Sociological Positivism

B. Pragmatism

PHILOSOPHY OF EVOLUTION

XXV 505

.

.

Hypothetical Evolution

2 . Darwinian Evolution

505

510

.

3

Cosmic Evolution* Spencer

5

Superman Evolution Neitzsche Later Evolutionary Theory

S 17 5^3

528

Chapur XXVI NATURAL RIGHTS AND SOCIAL CHANGE

534 534 539

.

Law and Right

1.

Ancient Concepts of

2.

Modern Background

3.

Reaction against Natural Rights Theory and Extreme Individualism

of Natural Rights

561

4 . Modern Trends

575

Chapter

XXVII

SOME POSSIBLE IMPLICATIONS OF RECENT SCIENCE

586 586

Thejif^tonian “Classical” Tradition 2j,,^R^olutions in Science and Thought The Universe Grows Larger 4 The Smallest Things Are Quanta .... I.