The Presbyterian and Reformed Review, Vol. 1: July, 1890 (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Inhaltsangabe

Excerpt from The Presbyterian and Reformed Review, Vol. 1: July, 1890

In stretching the lines of defense of the spiritualistic principle in psychology, we turn at once to the method of knowledge as a pro cess, and we shall find it valuable for more than defense. For if we discover the independence of the thinking subject as regards the method, we may at once pass to its autonomy as regards the matter of the knowing process. That is, if we find a refutation of mate rialism in the psychology of knowing, we have so much the more ground for its refutation in the metaphysic of knowing, and the two considerations will present a consistent philosophy of knowing. What then is the materialist's doctrine of the method of knowledge?

There are four cosmological doctrines of knowledge, arising from four types of world-theory, assuming that the parties to the contro versy are only mind and matter. First, monism of thought; second, dualism 01 thought and matter (or force); third, absolute phenome nalism or agnosticism; and fourth, monism of matter (or force). On the first hypothesis, perception is a purely thought relation, and by definition the materialist cannot accept it. On the second, we have a realistic theory of knowledge in which the thought element rests upon the ultimate presupposition of thought and the materialist is again excluded. Upon the hypothesis of absolute phenomenalism the support is cut equally from both subject and object. If both be phenomenal, there can be no question as to which is real, and the materialist and idealist are both defeated. The fourth supposition, monism of matter or force, is then the materialist's only alternative, and the first problem we propound to him is this: Given matter or force, how do you account for thought? Is mind a function of organized matter?

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