Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1854-12-30


Mental philosophy is moreover among the first needs Of
mans nature is Witnessed by the fact that 1t every
where antedates the rise Of physical science. The
fundest questions Of ontoogy and psychology were dis
cussed among the priesty caste Of the old Egyptians
were elaborated by the elder Greeks, and pom
dered by the sages Of India and all before the existence
of iuductive science Can that be all delusion and
phantasy which is universal the race, and which
has engaged the mghtiest intelects Of history? But
why has philosophy failed to substanate its high
ments and solve its great problems for it has thus
far, signay failed, though itself 10th to confess the
fact We shall attempt this question, not by
propounding any theory but by referring it to two
principal causes First because philosophy has attempt
ed too much and second because the uness Of her time
is not yet come.
The prmordal conception from which oil philosophy
starts and which it depends is the notion of SELF of
the me- as it is called in philosophical parlancc We are
all conscious of this self hood for it is this which gives
the idea Of osslve This self perceive to be limit
hemmed in and crcumscribed by something extrinsic
and external ITSELF nsomuch that the very idea of self
stands opposed to something which is not SELF; or
the philosophers say, the finds around it other exist
that separate from U.S. and which, therefore,
may term the not me- being the most general phrase
by which it be denominated But besides these two
great fundamental IDEAS there is something else in which
they both embosomed were, and this is called
the absolute. As the me implies me, SO the notion Of the
limited and the finite implies the correatiye one of the
mitable and the infinite Thus the idea Of the absolute
rises in the mind as an irresistible anthess the ideas
of the me and the not me- both Of which limited and
conditioned exstencies The idea Of the absolute is also
suggested by all necessary truth the axiomafc truths
for instance, of mathematics do not depend upon the
perceptions Of the the conditions of matter
They truths of pure reason, and do not belong to
they reflections in man Of that which is neces
sary and unalterably rue emanations rays Of the
infinite which governs the universe by the laws Of
unerring wisdom and truth" Now these pure concep-
tons Of the mpersona reason since they do not depend
upon the world reside in the absolute reason
Of God They absolute truths and these three cog
nitions, the me, the me- and the absolute, the u
mate starting points of all philosophy because they are
the ultimate forms of all being, and comprise the
scbile Of human thought
Now, philosophy for the last two thousand years has
been condemned to labor in treadmil because it has
proposed to itself problems which manifesty insou
bic. Accepting the idea of the me- it has attempted to
pr9pe BY the the objective existence Of the
and the objective veracity Of tho absolute Idealsts like
Berkeley have affirmed that the world of matter has no
yerabe and substantial existence, but depends wholly
upon the organism Of the mind, insomuch that apart
from mans intellect there is in the real world obec
tive counterpart to his IDEAS And too the
axioms Of the pronounced subjective convic
tons which have no objective truth reality. Mind,
and mind alone, builds the world of being Annhilate
mind and you reach the formula Of Hegel das ssyn i
nichts-being is nothing.
For part we most surely believe in the reality
of objective world and in the veracty Of absolute
ideas We believe there is something actual without u.s.
and that there automatic truths which, since they
not spring from the human mind but only cogpzed
by it, must therefore be conceived to reside in the infinite
and Interchangeable But that this reality Of the
not and this yeracty of the absolute can be demon
sraed by the human do not believe, and all
attempts at such demonstration as futile as the at
tempt to find the quadrature Of the circle in
or to discover perpetual motion in dynamics As we'll
seek the living among the dead seek subsantate by
the that objective existence which cognized only
by the senses for if will not believe the evidence Of
their senses neither will they believe the deductions of
their nteects And equally hopeless and abortive
to the effort of the finite mind to form any positive
idea of the absolute or in other words conceive the
and comprehend the ncomprehensibe We
believe in the existence of the absolute but we have
only negative idea Of it. We know only what it
what 1t is is manifestly nscrutabe, and none among
mortals has taken off its VAIL neither its vail be re-
moved for by the terms Of its definition it is something
infinite and the percipent is finite. As soon as the
whole becomes less than oil its parts the absolute can be
positively apprehended by the finite mind but not till
then.
IT. however it be conceded that what we call objective
existence and necessary truth merely subjective
vcons of the mind because incapable of subsantiaton
the reason does not follow that they therefore
nonentites in the which the ideasts and skepcs
seek to establish As acute Scotch thinker 1--WE
Mr. Doye) well observes, this subjective view of all
human knowledge cannot be turned the subverson of
morals the humiliation Of mans responsibility; for
what matters it whether call perceptions subjec
tive objective if they the less practically
real? "Suppose he says, subjective man is
ed by subjective policeman, tried by subjective jury,
and condemned to subjective Imprisonment is the pain
the less real because it is subjective Admitting there
FORE oil that is asserted by the ideasts land the con-
trary allow cannot be proved by the reason)
that religion and morality overthrow any
than human activity is disturbed by such admission
Suppose all phenomena are the idealis alleges only
notifications of The me-" does subjective fire burn him
the less, or if he falls down subjective precipce and
breaks his subjective neck the consequences any
less for the suectivy Of these notifications in his
And So if the distinctions between right and wrong
between virtue and vice, only subjective, these dis
tinctons may be the less practically important
the subjective day Of judgment through subjective
eternity"
Philosophy, therefore, in occupying itself with such
No seek to proye by the reason that which