ISBN: 9780217024853

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1882. Not … More...

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1882. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER IV. THE RELATIVITY OF KNOWLEDGE ACCORDING TO SIR W. HAMILTON AND MR MILL. The Relativity of Knowledge, I have shewn in the last chapter, has a different meaning in each of the three philosophers, whose seeming verbal agreement, and high reputation, are at first sight a strong presumption in favour of its truth. Sir W. Hamilton, Mr Spencer, Mr Mill, all directly affirm it in the most emphatic terms. The last of them pronounces it to be true, fundamental, and full of important consequences. Sir W. Hamilton, whose immense reading in metaphysics is well known, claims for it the general assent of all great thinkers of former days, and speaks of a few German theorizers, such as Schelling and Hegel, as the only exceptions. Mr Spencer adopts from him both the historical statement, and the exposition of the doctrine, and places it at the foundation of his own laboriously constructed scheme of philosophy. But when we look more closely, we find that Mr Mill reduces Sir W. Hamilton''s seventeen authorities to two only, though he would gladly have learned that there had been so wide an acceptance of what he calls a philosophical truth destructive of a great mass of misleading speculation ; and of these two, Newton, the more weighty, may be shewn, by the context of the quotation, to be as far as the others from affirming the real doctrine in debate. Also Mr Mill proceeds to prove, through six or seven chapters, that the Natural Realism of Sir W. Hamilton, and his doctrine of Belief, as distinct from knowledge, amount to a practical surrender and reversal of the doctrine of Relativity, which in words he so strongly affirms. In like manner he corrects his first impressions of Mr Spencer''s view, and concludes that it is really no less inconsistent than the Scot... Thomas Rawson Birks, Books, History, Modern Physical Fatalism And The Doctrine Of Evolution; Including An Examination Of H. Spencer's First Principles Books>History This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Published by: Macmillan in 1882 in 341 pages; Subjects: Human beings; Evolution; Religion and science; Christianity; History / General; Philosophy / History & Surveys / Modern; Religion / Religion & Science; Science / Cosmology; Science / Life Sciences / Evolution;<

2012, ISBN: 9780217024853

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAP… More...

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. ON ULTIMATE IDEAS IN PHYSICS. The words of the Apostle, we know in part, are the keynote of all true Philosophy. They apply equally to the lowest and the highest field of human thought, to the study of number and lifeless matter, and to the knowledge of God, the Supreme Creator. We know. We are condemned..., Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. ON ULTIMATE IDEAS IN PHYSICS. The words of the Apostle, we know in part, are the keynote of all true Philosophy. They apply equally to the lowest and the highest field of human thought, to the study of number and lifeless matter, and to the knowledge of God, the Supreme Creator. We know. We are condemned nowhere to utter nescience and total darkness. But we know in part. Our knowledge is everywhere surrounded by mystery, and much remains unknown. In every field of thought the assertion that we can know nothing at all is a degrading superstition; while a claim to perfect knowledge, excluding mystery, is the extreme of presumptuous folly. The Philosophy of the Conditioned, in Sir W. Hamilton, and its equivalent, the Doctrine of the Unknowable, in Mr Spencer's Philosophy, consists in a direct reversal of this fundamental truth. The first maintains that we must believe the unconditioned to exist, but that, from the very laws of thought, we can know nothing of it whatever. The latter adopts the same view, and carries it out to its logical conclusion. The contrast between Theology and Physics, which alone is honoured with the name of Science, is affirmed to be the same with the contrast ofthe unknowable and the knowable. All recognize that the nature of God is deeply mysterious. All, or nearly all, believe that great and real advances have been made in physical science, and the knowledge of outward things. A true philosophy will complete these admitted facts by the double doctrine that in Theology much may and ought to be known, and that in Physics much is, and will remain to the last, mysterious. The new philosophy, to be consistent, must hold the two contradictory falsehoods, that in religion all is mystery, with no possibility of real knowledge, and that in Physi...Soort: Met illustraties; Taal: Engels; Afmetingen: 5x246x189 mm; Gewicht: 181,00 gram; Verschijningsdatum: januari 2012; ISBN10: 0217024858; ISBN13: 9780217024853; , Engelstalig | Paperback | 2012, Mens & Maatschappij, Geschiedenis, Meer geschiedenis en politiek, Meer, General Books<

ISBN: 0217024858