The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1907-05-15
AND ITS.
DANGERS BY OR.
BOVINE
Sets Forth Advantages and
Spoke Also in Lecture at
University Tuesday.

WoS SlNCu NY III.
Bovine at the university before the
students. faculty. and many visitors
from out of the city. 1t was on
philosophy, its dangers. advantages
and scope. DR.. Bowne's presentation
OF his subject-abstract as the sub
ject is-was simple. clear and artis-
tic. He has a marvellous power, lucid
exposition, touched by keen humor
and made to appeal by apt illustra-
ton.
4 Dangerous Thing.
The speaker declared that philoso-
ply is dangerous thing. that it is
a drug to be prescribed with caution;
that a bad philosophy brings mildew
on nations life and that it may be
the broad way that leads to destruc-
ton. But all philosophize because
they can not help it: and philosophy
like the tabled spear is the only thing
that will cure the wound which
little philosophy or bad philosophy
has made.
All philosophers as we'll as others
assume. without anything like math-
ematical demonstrations. three things,
viz: Wa community of persons, ca
a common law of reason and go a
world of common experiences. These
are questioned only by the insane.
Question OF Reality.
The speaker next dwelt on the ques-
ton of reality and defined it as an
experience that can be depended up
on. This experience is independent
of our theories in regard to it. The
experienced fact must be reckoned
with. no matter what We call it. We
may call it, or interpret it as an
illusion or as nothing, but it must
be reckoned with as If it were some-
thing. Some regard pain, disease and
death as illusions but if so other IL
lusions. which are called medicines,
must be resorted to!
Experience, then. is basal fact
to be systematized and explained but
not to be denied. But why not stop
at experience and not seek to trans
cend it? We can not stop there: We
must seek explanation but not by
denying the experience. The philoso-
piers world is broader and deeper
than the world OF common sense be-
cause it is largely explanation. The
astronomers heaven explains Broth
er Jaspers astronomy. Brother Jas
per's observations We're all right as
far as they went but they stopped
short. Common sense sees only
part: philosophy goes on and inter-
prets-it does not contradict. Philos-
ophy draws conclusions from COM
mon sense. Common sense, science
and philosophy are not discordant.
The first gives the facts. the second
organizes them and the third gives
the causal Interpretation.
Is Not Vague.
Some people imagine that philoso-
ply is vague. unreal, visionary. with
out any facts of experience for
foundation. This is false. Philosophy
is not fiction-it is the Interpretation
of common sense and science.
The noted speaker next took up the
theory of knowledge and Rants ex-
PLANTATION. Kant maintained that be-
low and behind the theories of ra-
tionalism Ia priori source) and en-
synthesizing ego. That experience is
not given, but on the contrary is built
up by the mind. Man constructs his
world of experience which is his only
movable world. In every day life
thought is not transferred from one
person to another, but is construct
in each persons mind. One may
cause it to arise but does not trans
fer it. Much less is experience of
objective things transferred into the
mind. This experience is not a dat
unit arises in the mind and grows.
But Kant erred in postulating a
some unknowable thing behind phen-
Omena-called a neumenon. We can
find no place of function for tive
can make no use of it in any case.
But all people, philosophers as we'll,
must postulate it because it is de-
pendable and can not be avoided.
Neighbors are always in evidence;
while neumena are always behind the
veil. mere shadows of mental de-
mands; they are intellectual Migrants
without any visible means of sup
port.
Was Misleading.
While this doctrine of Kant was
misleading the great truth in Kant
was that things are not ultimates.
We take experience as it is but seek
causal ground. This is life.
causal being. The neumenon OF all
things is God. God being active there
is no static universe. The universe
is one of becoming.
Hence the validity of our knowledge
and the possibilities of experience in
other worlds and spheres. We are
only in the beginnings of life and con-
seriousness. Here we are in a human
and personal world moving out on
an open curve. We have dreams in
which we have faith and hence we
follow the CLEAN.
cIII TI|RE cTIInV m n n