OF

MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

BY M. VICTOR COUSIN.

TRANSLATED BY O. W. WIGHT.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

NEW YORK:

D. APPLETON & COMPANY, 200 BROADWAY.

M DCCC LIII.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852,

By D. APPLETON & CO.,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern

District of New York.

CONTENTS.

LECTURE IX.

SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY.

Scholastic Philosophy.-Its character and its origin.-Division of Scholas-

ticism into three epochs.-First epoch.-Second epoch.-Third epoch.

Birth of philosophical independence; quarrel of nominalism and realism,

which represent idealism and sensualism in Scholasticism.-John Occam.

His partisans and his adversaries.-Decrial of the two systems and of Scho-

lasticism.-Mysticism.-Chancellor Gerson. His Mystic Theology. Ex-

tracts from this work.-Conclusion..

LECTURE X.

PHILOSOPHY OF THE PERIOD OF THE REVIVAL.

13

Subject of this lecture: philosophy of the fifteenth and of the sixteenth

centuries.-Its character and its origin.-Classification of all its systems

into four schools. 1st, Platonic idealistic school: Marsilio Ficino, the Picos

of Mirandola, Ramus, Patrizzi, Giordano Bruno.-2d, Peripatetic sensualistic

school: Pomponatius, Achillini, Cesalpini, Vanini, Telesio, Campanella.—

3d, Skeptic school: Sanchez, Montaigne, Charron.-4th, Mystic school:

Marsilio Ficino, the Picos, Nicholaus Cusanus, Reuchlin, Agrippa, Paracel-

sus, Society of the Rosicrucians, Robert Fludd, Van Helmont, Böhme.-

Comparison of the four schools.-Conclusion...

MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

LECTURE XI.

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

AND IDEALISM.

SENSUALISM

43

Modern philosophy.-Its general character.-Two ages in modern philoso-

phy: the first age is that of the philosophy of the seventeenth century,

properly so called.-Schools of the seventeenth century. Sensualistic

school: Bacon, Hobbes, Gassendi, Locke.-Idealistic school: Descartes,

Spinoza, Malebranche

....

77

MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

LECTURE XII.

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

AND MYSTICISM.

SKEPTICISM

Struggle between sensualism and idealism. Leibnitz: an attempt at a con-

ciliation which is resolved into idealism.-Skepticism: Huet, Hirnhaim,

Glanville, Pascal, Lamothe Le Vayer, Bayle.-Mysticism: Mercurius Van

Helmont, More, Pordage, Poiret, Swedenborg.-Conclusion. Entrance

into the second age of modern philosophy, or philosophy of the eighteenth

century properly so called...

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SECOND SERIES-VOL. III.

LECTURE XIII.

CLASSIFICATION OF THE SCHOOLS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

Of the method of observation and of induction in history.-That induction,

resting upon the observation of all the anterior facts in the philosophy of

history, divides at first the philosophy of the eighteenth century into four

systems. Confirmation of induction by facts.--Division of the European

schools of the eighteenth century into four schools: sensualistic, idealistic,

skeptical, mystical. Division of this course into four corresponding parts.--

Order of the development of these four schools, and consequently the

order to follow in their exposition.-Spirit of this course.-Its last aim. 125

LECTURE XIV.

SENSUALISTIC SCHOOL IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.

Subject of this lecture: Review of the different systems of the sensualistic

school in Europe during the eighteenth century, in England, France, and

Germany. That, even for the sake of fidelity, the historian should attach

himself to the most celebrated systems. In what order must they be

studied? Ethnographical method. Three objections: 1st, arbitrary; 2d,

shows not the concatenation, the reciprocal action of systems; 3d, unfa-

vorable to scientific instruction.-Of the true method of its characters:

To follow at once the dates of systems, their reciprocal dependence, and the

analogy of subjects. To commence with the metaphysics of Locke... 143

LECTURE XV.

LOCKE. HIS LIFE.

Locke: his biography.-Sprang from a liberal family.-His first studies.--

Descartes disgusts him with scholasticism.-He pays particular attention to

medicine. He enters into the political world; his friendship with Shaftes-

bury. His varied fortunes.-Driven from the University of Oxford.-His

refuge in Holland.-Revolution of 1688.-Favor of Locke until his death.

-His character: disinterestedness, prudence, firmness, tolerance.-Review

of his works. The Essay on the Human Understanding.

LECTURE XVI.

ESSAY ON THE HUMAN UNDERSTANDING.

159

ITS SPIRIT. ITS METHOD.

General spirit of the Essay on the Human Understanding.—Its method: study

of the human understanding as the necessary foundation of all true phi-

losophy.-Study of the human understanding in its phenomena or ideas.-

Division of inquiries with respect to ideas, and determination of the order

in which these inquiries should be made. To postpone the logical and on-

tological question of the truth or falsity of ideas, of the legitimacy or ille-

gitimacy of their application to such or such objects, to adhere to the study

of ideas in themselves, and in that to commence by establishing the actual

characters of ideas, and then to proceed to the investigation of their origin.

-Examination of the method of Locke. Its merit: he postpones and

places last the question of the truth or falsity of ideas; its fault: he en-

tirely neglects the question of the actual characters of ideas, and he starts

by that of their origin. First error of the method; chances of errors which

it involves; general tendency of the school of Locke.............
181

ESSAY.

LECTURE XVII.

FIRST BOOK, INNATE IDEAS.

SECOND BOOK, OF SPACE.

First Book of the Essay on the Human Understanding. Of innate ideas.

Second Book. Experience, the source of all ideas. Sensation and reflee-

tion. Of the operations of the mind. According to Locke, they are exer-

cised only upon sensible data. Basis of sensualism.-Examination of the

doctrine of Locke concerning the idea of space.--That the idea of space, in

the system of Locke, should be reduced and is reduced to that of body.---

This confusion is contradicted by facts and by Locke himself. Distinction

of the actual characters of the ideas of body and of space.-Examination of

the question of the origin of the idea of space. Distinction between the

logical order and the chronological order of our ideas.-The idea of space

is the logical condition of the idea of body; the idea of body is the chrono-

logical condition of the idea of space.-Of reason and experience, con-

sidered in turn as the reciprocal condition of their mutual development.-

Merit of Locke's system.-Its vices: 1st, it confounds the measure of

space with space; 2d, the condition of the idea of space with this idea

itself....
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