Of the three, that of the "infinite" is the most distinctive in Oriental thought, that of the "finite" in Greek thought, and their synthesis in modern thought. Systems of philosophy as they have appeared in history may be classified as sensational, idealistic, sceptical, mystical. These are all imperfect forms of the one true philosophy, eclecticism. Result. Though not of great originality or profoundity (as indeed he did not claim to be), Cousin has had a very great influence on the thought of the century, particularly in his own country and in America. He was a remarkably skilful popularizer of philosophical truth. § 109. Jouffroy was Théodore Simon Jouffroy (1796-1842). educated at the College of Dijon and at the École Normale in Paris, where he had Cousin as instructor in philosophy. He became an assistant instructor in the Normal School, lecturer at the Collège de Bourbon and in the University of Paris, and adjunct professor to Royer Collard in the last-named institution. He was at one time member of the Chamber of Deputies. He was elected to the Academy in 1833. Works. Original works of Jouffroy are: "Mélanges Philosophiques" (1833), -a miscellany of philosophical writings; "Cours de Droit Naturel" ("Course in Natural Right"), (1835); "Nouveaux Mélanges Philosophiques " (posthumous); "Cours d'Esthétique " (posthumous). (He translated Reid's works and the "Outlines of Moral Philosophy" by Dugald Stewart. He also edited, in an abridged form, Kant's "Kritik der reinen Vernunft," 1842.) Philosophy. The only salvation for philosophy — as distinguished from physiological psychology is the recognition that there is a distinct order of facts for it to deal with, and that there must be a "more profound observation of human nature" than has yet been employed. Human nature has a twofold character: it is both free and subject to necessary laws; it has a psychological and a physiological side; it is personal and impersonal. It possesses the faculties of liberty of will, of primitive inclinations, of voluntary motion, of speech, of feeling pleasure and pain, of sensible perception, conception, and abstraction (intellectual faculties). Human action, as a part of a universal order, is to be judged according to the degree of its conformity with that, or, in other words, with the destiny of human nature. Beauty is that which affords a disinterested pleasure. The elements of beauty are order and proportion; its conditions are unity and variety. § IIO. Robert de Lamennais1 (1782-1854). ·- Lamennais was educated for the priesthood, and until 1834 was a stanch defender of the faith and the infallibility of the authority of the Romish Church in matters of religion. After 1834 he appears as a philosopher pure and simple, having renounced the Church. Works. The philosophical works of Lamennais correspond with two distinct attitudes of thought. His "Essai sur l'Indifférence en Matière de Religion" and "De la Religion considérée dans ses Rapports avec l'Ordre Politique et Civil" (1825-1826) are works in which philosophy appears as subservient to the Church. His "Esquisse d'une Philosophie" (1837-1841) is a philosophical work in the proper sense of the term. Philosophy: Earlier Standpoint. The All individual philosophical systems necessarily end in scepticism. individual reason alone is impotent to search out the universal truth. This is in the possession of the universal reason of humanity, the only true expression of which is contained in the faith of the Roman Catholic Church, and the only organ of which is the pope, etc. Later Standpoint. - Underlying all our thoughts and affirmations is the idea of being as such, God. God is the positive in all existence; outside him there is nothing. 1 Noack. God alienates himself in part from himself, — thus creating the world of finite existences, which is consubstantial with, though in a manner distinct from, him. God, though one, contains in himself a triplicity of principles. In his intelligence there are: (1) the "sole thought of himself; (2) representative ideas of all particular beings; (3) something which determines the actual distinction of particular ideas." God has the three attributes of power, intelligence, and love, and in all that exists, this triplicity in different degrees recurs. The lowest degree of manifestation of God's attributes is found in matter as such. Impenetrability in matter corresponds to force, or power, in God, figure to intelligence in him, and cohesion to love. The material elements ether, light, heat are, respectively, inferior forms of God's three attributes, power, intelligence, love. The divine essence communicates itself in all its purity to the rational free soul. Creation is the progressive manifestation of all that which is in God, and in the same order in which it is in God. The world is the best possible. All that could be, necessarily was; there was no room for choice. Lamennais aims to avoid pantheism by insisting on the necessary imperfection of the world as a created existence (since God could not create another God), and therefore it is separateness in relation to God. § III. Auguste Comte1 (1798-1857). Comte was born at Montpellier. He attended school in Montpellier and studied at the École Polytechnique in Paris, from which he was ejected because of unwillingness to submit to what was, perhaps, an arbitrary exercise of authority. For some years he lived in Paris, obtaining a not very liberal livelihood by 1 See Abridged Translation of Comte's " Philosophie Positive," by Harriet Martineau; "A General View of Positivism" (translated by J. H. Bridges); "Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte," by J. S. Mill; "Encyclopædia Britannica;" Caird's "Comte's Social Philosophy." VOL. I. 20 teaching mathematics. Between the years 1818 and 1824 he was a pupil of the Socialist Saint-Simon. At first an enthusiastic admirer of the Socialist, he came to despise him as a charlatan, and declined to admit himself to be under any great intellectual obligations to him. In 1826, in consequence of overwork and of mental anxiety caused by domestic discord and financial straits, he became mentally deranged. He was able, however, in 1828 to resume his work as teacher, and to prepare in the two years following a volume for publication. In 1832 he was appointed répétiteur, or assistant-instructor, and not long after examiner, in the École Polytechnique. In 1842 he lost his place as examiner, and lived precariously, supported in part by contributions of friends and followers in France and England. In 1845, having, three years previously, divorced his wife, he fell violently in love with a certain Madame Clotilde de Vaux, whose friendship he enjoyed only for too brief a period, since she died the next year. The influence of her and her memory upon him introduced a new epoch in his mental life, promoting, if not causing outright, a tendency the seeming opposite of the positivistic, viz., a phantasticomystical religious tendency. Works. Comte's chief philosophical works are : "Cours de Philosophie Positive" (1830-1842, 6 vols.); "Système de Politique Positive, ou Traité de Sociologie instituant la Religion de l'Humanité" (1851-1854); “Synthèse Subjective" (1856). Philosophy: the Law of Human Development. "Each of our leading conceptions, each branch of our knowledge, passes successively through three different theoretical conditions, the theological, or fictitious; the metaphysical, or abstract; the scientific, or positive. In other words, the human mind by its nature employs in its progress three methods of philosophizing, the character of which is essentially different, and even radically opposed; viz., the theological method, the metaphysical, and the positive. Hence arise three philosophies, or general systems of con ceptions on the aggregate of phenomena, each of which excludes the others. The first is the necessary point of the human understanding; the third is its fixed and definitive state. The second is merely a state of transition. In the theological state, the human mind, seeking the essential nature of beings, the first and final causes (the origin and purpose) of all effects, in short, absolute knowledge, supposes all phenomena to be produced by the immediate action of supernatural beings. In the metaphysical state, which is only a modification of the first, the mind supposes, instead of supernatural beings, abstract forces, veritable entities (that is, personified abstractions) inherent in all beings, and capable of producing all phenomena. What is called the explanation of phenomena is in this stage a mere reference of each to its proper entity. In the final, positive state, the mind has given over the vain search after absolute notions, the origin and destination of the universe, and the causes of phenomena, and applies itself to the study of their laws, that is, invariable relations of succession and resemblance. Reasoning and observation, duly combined, are the means of this knowledge. What is now understood when we speak of explanation of facts is simply the establishment of a connection of single phenomena and some general facts, the number of which diminishes with the progress of science. The theological system arrived at the highest perfection of which it is capable when it substituted the providential action of a single being for the varied operations of numerous divinities which had been before imagined. In the same way, in the last stage of the metaphysical system was substituted one great entity (Nature) as the cause of all phenomena, instead of the multitude of entities at first supposed. In the same way, again, the ultimate perfection of the positive system would be (if such perfection could be hoped for) to represent all phenomena as particular aspects of a single general fact, such as gravitation, for instance." Evidences of this law are to be found in the |