A Pluralistic Universe

A PLURALISTIC UNIVERSE Hibbert Lectures at Manchester College on the Present Situation in Philosophy BY WILLIAM JAMES LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. FOURTH AVENUE AND SOm STREET, NEW YORK LONDON, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA 1920 CONTENTS LECTURE I THE TYPES OP PHILOSOPHIC THINKING Our age is growing philosophical again, 3. Change of tone since I860, 4. Empiricism and Rationalism defined, 7. The process of Philosophizing Philosophers choose some part of the world to in terpret the whole by, 8. They seek to make it seem less strange, 11. Their temperamental differences, 12. Their systems must be rea soned out, 13. Their tendency to over-technicality, 15. Excess of this in Germany, 17. The type of vision is the important thing in a philosopher, 20. Primitive thought, 21. Spiritualism and Material ism Spiritualism shows two types, 23. Theism and Pantheism, 24. Theism makes a duality of Man and God, and leaves Man an outsider, 25. Pantheism identifies Man with God, 29. The con temporary tendency is towards Pantheism, 30. Legitimacy of our demand to be essential in the Universe, 33. Pluralism versus Monism The each-form 1 and the all-form of representing the world, 34. Professor Jacks quoted, 35. Absolute Idealism charac terized, 36. Peculiarities of the finite consciousness which the Ab solute cannot share, 38. The finite still remains outside of absolute reality, 40. LECTURE II MONISTIC IDEALISM 41 Recapitulation, 43. Radical Pluralism is to be the thesis of these lectures, 44. Most philosophers contemn it, 45. Foreign ness to us of Bradleys Absolute, 46. Spinoza and quatenus, 47. Difficulty of sympathizing with the Absolute, 48. Idealistic attempt to interpret it, 50. Professor Jones quoted, 52.Absolutist refutations of Plural ism, 54. Criticism of Lotzes proof of Monism by the analysis of what interaction involves, 55. Vicious intellectualism defined, 60. Royces alternative either the complete disunion or the absolute union of things, 61. Bradleys dialectic difficulties with relations, 69. Inefficiency of the Absolute as a rationalizing remedy, 71. Tend ency of Rationalists to fly to extremes, 74. The question of exter nal relations, 79. Transition to Hegel, 91. iii CONTENTS LECTURE III HEGEL AND HIS METHOD 83 Hegels influence, 85. The type of his vision is impressionistic, 87. The dialectic element in reality, 88. Pluralism involves possible conflicts among things, 90. Hegel explains conflicts by the mutual contradictoriness of concepts, 91. Criticism of his attempt to tran scend ordinary logic, 92. Examples of the dialectic constitution of things, 95. The rationalistic ideal propositions self-securing by means of double negation, 101. Sublimity of the conception, 104. Criticism of Hegels account it involves vicious intellectualism, 105. Hegel is a seer rather than a reasoner, 107. The Absolute and God are two different notions, 110. Utility of the Absolute in con ferring mental peace, 114. But this is counterbalanced by the pe culiar paradoxes which it introduces into philosophy, 116. Leibnitz and Lotze on the fall involved in the creation of the finite, 119. Joachim on the fall of truth into error, 121. The world of the abso lutist cannot be perfect, 123. Pluralistic conclusions, 125. LECTURE IV CONCERNING FECHNEB 131 Superhuman consciousness does not necessarily imply an abso lute mind, 134. Thinness of contemporary absolutism, 135. The tone of Fechners empiricistpantheism contrasted with that of the rationalistic sort, 144. Fechners life, 145. His vision, the daylight view, 150. His way of reasoning by analogy, 151. The whole uni verse animated, 152. His monistic formula is unessential, 153. The Earth-Soul, 156. Its differences from our souls, 160. The earth as an angel, 164. The Plant-Soul, 165. The logic used by Fectmer, 168. His theory of immortality, 170. The thickness of his imagi nation, 173. Inferiority of the ordinary transcendentalist pantheism, to his vision, 174. LECTURE V THE COMPOUNDING OF CONSCIOUSNESS 179 The ...