New-York tribune., 1907-04-10
A SEcaf of Recent Volumes OF
Philosophy.

,-uF sYfLoGIsrlc PHILOSOPHY. BY Francis
EllInswood Abbott IN Two volumes 0'o' PIP
rHF WORLD MACHINE BY Carl Snyder Svo'
Do iSg Longmans, Green q Co.
pEasON IN BELIEF. By Frank Sewan Svo' pp-
9N London: Elliot Stock.
,-.1r CULTURE OF THE SOUL AMONG WEST
AFRN NATIONS. By p. Ramanath2n. eVo, PIP.
- G. J.. Putnsms Sons.
rEE STEPS or LIFE. By Carl Hity. Svo, PIP
20. The Macmillan Company
THE PSYCHIC RIDDLE. by !. X Funk Svo' Pr.
sC Funk A. Magnans Company
There are TWO ways of criticising philosophy,
.ust as there are two ways of philosophizing
y, may come at the world fun tilt with all
the weapons of logic and science. or You may
Sand off at an artistically proper distance and
ave the intirite panorama of events with loving,
vopdering gaze. If you try TO philosophize in
che former fashion yoa must begin by reading
several score of very ponderous books, by peer
sng through microscopes and telescopes. and by
uorrnng your way through the finely cut but
sortnous and endless mazes of mathematical
labvrinths. Just where You viii end after hav-
ing performed all these initiatory rites nobody
can say; only one thing is sure-if YOU tell your
dearest friend your ultimate and irrevocable
heliefs concerning the nature of the universe
and the future OF the human race he VIII dis
agree with you most worldly. If you easily
discouraged by such rebuns you may begin
afresh, using The other method Of philosophiz-
ing And now things viii run much more
smoothly The universe is magically trans
formed into an art gallery through whose cor
gidors you and everybody else are walking: YOU
now see that tho scientific philosophers whose
methods you have disconsolately cast aside are
simply the spectators who are lucky enough u
possess catalogues Of the infinite exhibit. This
discovery is comforting; for the best catalogue
On the world. YOU say doesn't do anything more
than ticket things You can see things as they
are without the aid of an Observation-Disclosures
list The people with catalogues viii whisper
"Impressouist," behind your back but that
won't worry you in the least
II the same can he said Of philosophical criti-
c.sm ii is obviously the critics duty TO make
clear the ttitude he plans To take toward the
philosophies he would cr.ticise. For It is often
hard 10 distinguish The two methods: a critic
may seem TO be }ecturing before masterpiece
Of PlatO's and Karts. while in reality he IS
putting gilt frame about himself and hanging
himself on the best lighted spot on the walls
Of the Philosophers Corridor in the Cosni, Art
Gallery After contemplating the array OF
books philosophical in content or intent recently
submitted 10 The hanging committee the judges
have decided TO use the laborious scientific meth
cd in Criticising them. This viii make much less
Interesting reading than the artistic method
but it has the great advantage OF brevitv II
We were to begin swapping philosophical i'm
pTessons with the criticised. tongue WEAKNESS
and word shortage alone could end the discus
sion. II is much easier 10 fight with facts; they
90 not make such pretty duel for the onlooker,
being less glittering ana swift in action but
they Withstand the fray better and cut more
deeply.
By far the most noteworthy philosophical
study Of the season is Mr.. Schiler's Studies in
Eumanisnl." Its Importance lies not so much
IN It's content. most of which has previously
seen the light in various periodicals. as in it's
Epokesmanship. This collection of essays rep
resents new school in philosophy, a school
whose English members call il Humanism while
lis more numerous American followers name il
Pragmatism. In seeking an answer 10 the eter-
nai query What is truth?" the school for
which Mr.. Schiller speaks apparently lapses into
g subJecuyism Of unrelieved gloom by declaring
that 'in certain sense the predication Of good
and bad, true and false etc. may take rank
with The experiences Of sweet red loud
hard' etc ultimate (psychologicaD facts
which need be analyzed 10 further" For the
benefit Of the unpsychological reader IL is fur
ther said that truth is a specific popularity Of
the human mind and its use is a habit peculiar
70 man"
But" cries the old fashioned listener. isn't
there a truth that IS greater than man and
above him? Do you meaSh that the world is
one vast lie? Or that true and false are mere
personal Impressions" To these questions the
Humanist replies with a smile that in the world
apart from human thinking. there is only big
buzZing, booming whirl Of events none of which
are either true or false, right wrong. Such
qualifications as these latter come into existence
only through the operations Of thought and
Keeling "Au mental life is purposive," Mr..
Schiller says, with the approval Of a vast num-
Der Of scientists; and those things which fall IN
With mems purposes are good" or true" while
Nose that do not do so are bad" false"
All this viii peTplex the old fashioned phil
osoDher until he hears Mr. Schiller say that his
new philosophy IS not philosophy at all in
he conventional sense; il is not system Of
metaphysics trying 20 describe the complexion
OF the Unknowable, but merely an evolutionary
study OF the development Of ideas now current.
II Is Darwin among the philosophers, Darwin
tying 10 ind out the principles Of the creation
ana modification Of human theories, hypotheses
and eertainties. Bearing this in mind. the
reader viii not be greatly confused by such
osclaIations as these: "The truth OF an asser-
tion depends upon the successful application
of The assertion; or Man IS the measure OF
ms experience. and so an ineradicable factor
n any world he experiences" Mr.. Schiller is
~S~1is . ANeullctn-ceulu4y EfOLaBOiaS,
crying in somewhat guarded sense that MAN
= the measure Of eli things" His essays are
oeoaoedly readable. although one wishes he We're
.tss iond of burying his opponents in a rubbish
hfap OF Tidicule. The trend Of his twenty essays
" ioWard illustrating. in various fields OF hui
man thought, how Truth is simply abstract
haine for Success. Some OF the facts he ad-
Naces may open many eyes.
The sharpest conceivable contrast in style and