| Summary: | "Philosophy aims at a rational comprehension of reality. But the instrument of philosophy is thought itself. All systems of whatever kind, even systems of doubt and denial, must recognize the existence of laws of thought whereby the normal processes and results of thinking are distinguished from the abnormal. Without such recognition there is no distinction between rational and irrational, and naught remains but caprice, obstinacy, and infatuation. Hence the logical order of philosophical study is logic, epistemology, and metaphysics. The first treats of the laws of normal thinking, or the science of thought. The second applies these laws to the problem of knowledge, and, by analyzing the idea of knowledge, aims to discover its general conditions and implications. These two are only different aspects of the one question. The third asks after the final conceptions reached by thought concerning real existence, or, more specifically, concerning man, nature, and the fundamental reality. We have, then, as the most significant divisions of philosophic study the following: 1. Logic, or the Theory of Thought; 2. Epistemology, or the Theory of Knowledge; 3. Metaphysics, or the Theory of Being. The first two divisions will be discussed in the present volume. The third will be postponed to a second volume. A detailed and exhaustive discussion is not aimed at in the present work. The plan is rather to select such fundamental points for discussion as shall give the reader some idea of the essential nature of thought, and of the essential factors of the thought process. An insight into principles often dispenses with the discussion of details; and the study of details without a knowledge of principles can come to no conclusion beyond barren reflections and desultory observations"--Introduction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)
|
|---|
