An Introduction to Philosophy. George Stuart Fullerton

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СКАЧАТЬ it is, on the whole, a justification of the attitude taken by the plain man toward the world in which he finds himself. The experience of the race is not a thing that we may treat lightly.

      Thus, it is maintained that there is a real external world presented in our experience—not a world which we have a right to regard as the sensations or ideas of any mind. It is maintained that we have evidence that there are minds in certain relations to that world, and that we can, within certain limits, determine these relations. It is pointed out that the plain man's belief in the activity of his mind and his notion of the significance of purposes and ends are not without justification. It is indicated that theism is a reasonable doctrine, and it is held that the human will is free in the only proper sense of the word "freedom." Throughout it is taken for granted that the philosopher has no private system of weights and measures, but must reason as other men reason, and must prove his conclusions in the same sober way.

      I have written in hopes that the book may be of use to undergraduate students. They are often repelled by philosophy, and I cannot but think that this is in part due to the dry and abstract form in which philosophers have too often seen fit to express their thoughts. The same thoughts can be set forth in plain language, and their significance illustrated by a constant reference to experiences which we all have—experiences which must serve as the foundation to every theory of the mind and the world worthy of serious consideration.

      But there are many persons who cannot attend formal courses of instruction, and who, nevertheless, are interested in philosophy. These, also, I have had in mind; and I have tried to be so clear that they could read the work with profit in the absence of a teacher.

      Lastly, I invite the more learned, if they have found my "System of Metaphysics" difficult to understand in any part, to follow the simple statement contained in the chapters above alluded to, and then to return, if they will, to the more bulky volume.

      GEORGE STUART FULLERTON.

      New York, 1906.

      PART I

      INTRODUCTORY

      CHAPTER I

      THE MEANING OF THE WORD "PHILOSOPHY" IN THE PAST AND IN THE PRESENT

      1. The Beginnings of Philosophy. 2. The Greek Philosophy at its Height. 3. Philosophy as a Guide to Life. 4. Philosophy in the Middle Ages. 5. The Modern Philosophy. 6. What Philosophy means in our Time.

      CHAPTER II

      COMMON THOUGHT, SCIENCE, AND REFLECTIVE THOUGHT

      7. Common Thought.

       8. Scientific Knowledge.

       9. Mathematics.

       10. The Science of Psychology.

       11. Reflective Thought.

      PART II

      PROBLEMS TOUCHING THE EXTERNAL WORLD

      CHAPTER III

      IS THERE AN EXTERNAL WORLD?

      12. How the Plain Man thinks he knows the World. 13. The Psychologist and the External World. 14. The "Telephone Exchange."

      CHAPTER IV

      SENSATIONS AND "THINGS"

      15. Sense and Imagination. 16. May we call "Things" Groups of Sensations? 17. The Distinction between Sensations and "Things." 18. The Existence of Material Things.

      CHAPTER V

      APPEARANCES AND REALITIES

      19. Things and their Appearances. 20. Real Things. 21. Ultimate Real Things. 22. The Bugbear of the "Unknowable".

      CHAPTER VI

      OF SPACE

      23. What we are supposed to know about It. 24. Space as Necessary and Space as Infinite. 25. Space as Infinitely Divisible. 26. What is Real Space?

      CHAPTER VII

      OF TIME

      27. Time as Necessary, Infinite, and Infinitely Divisible. 28. The Problem of Past, Present, and Future. 29. What is Real Time?

      PART III

      PROBLEMS TOUCHING THE MIND

      CHAPTER VIII

      WHAT IS THE MIND?

      30. Primitive Notions of Mind. 31. The Mind as Immaterial. 32. Modern Common Sense Notions of the Mind. 33. The Psychologist and the Mind. 34. The Metaphysician and the Mind.

      CHAPTER IX

      MIND AND BODY

      35. Is the Mind in the Body? 36. The Doctrine of the Interactionist. 37. The Doctrine of the Parallelist. 38. In what Sense Mental Phenomena have a Time and Place. 39. Objections to Parallelism.

      CHAPTER X

      HOW WE KNOW THERE ARE OTHER MINDS

      40. Is it Certain that we know It? 41. The Argument for Other Minds. 42. What Other Minds are there? 43. The Doctrine of Mind-stuff.

      CHAPTER XI

      OTHER PROBLEMS OF WORLD AND MIND

      44. Is the Material World a Mechanism? 45. The Place of Mind in Nature. 46. The Order of Nature and "Free-will." 47. The Physical World and the Moral World.

      PART IV

      SOME TYPES OF PHILOSOPHICAL THEORY

      CHAPTER XII

      THEIR HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

      48. The Doctrine of Representative Perception. 49. The Step to Idealism. 50. The Revolt of "Common Sense." 51. The Critical Philosophy.

      CHAPTER XIII

      REALISM AND IDEALISM

      52. Realism.

       53. Idealism.

      CHAPTER XIV

      MONISM AND DUALISM

      54. The Meaning of the Words. 55. Materialism. 56. Spiritualism. 57. The Doctrine of the One Substance. 58. Dualism. 59. Singularism and Pluralism.

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