The Catholic World, Vol. 07, April 1868 to September, 1868Various
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 07, April 1868 to September, 1868
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
In preferring these charges against M. Cousin's philosophy, we
have shown our ignorance of his real doctrine, our contempt for
his express declarations, and our philosophical incapacity, and
the reviewer thinks one may search in vain through any number of
magazine articles of equal length, for one more full of errors
and fallacies than ours. This is bad, and, if true, not at all to
our credit. We shall not say as much of his article, for that
would not be courteous, and instead of saying it, prefer to let
him prove it. We objected that M. Cousin assuming that to the
operation of reason no objective reality is necessary, can never,
on his system, establish such reality; the reviewer, p. 541,
gravely asserts that we ourselves hold, that to the operations of
reason no objective reality is necessary, and can never be
established! This is charming. But are these charges true? We
propose to take them up _seriatim_, and examine the
reviewer's proofs.
1. We said M. Cousin called his philosophical system eclecticism.
To this the reviewer replies:
"'Eclecticism can never be a philosophy;' making, among other
arguments, the pertinent inquiry: 'How, if you know not the
truth in its unity and integrity beforehand, are you, in
studying those several systems, to determine which is the part
of truth and which of error?'
"We beg his pardon, but M. Cousin never called his
philosophical system Eclecticism. In the introduction to the
_Vrai, Beau, et Bien_, he writes:
"'One word as to an opinion too much accredited. Some persons
persist in representing eclecticism as the doctrine to which
they would attach my name. I declare, then, that eclecticism
is, undoubtedly, very dear to me, for it is in my eyes the
light of the history of philosophy; but the fire which supplies
this light is elsewhere. Eclecticism is one of the most
important and useful applications of the philosophy I profess,
but it is not its principle. My true doctrine, my true flag, is
spiritualism; that philosophy, as stable as it is generous,
which began with Socrates and Plato, which the gospel spread
abroad in the world, and which Descartes placed under the
severe forms of modern thought'
"And the principles of this philosophy supply the touchstone
with which to try 'those several systems, and to determine
which is the part of truth and which of error.' Eclecticism, in
Cousin's view of it, as one might have discovered who had
'studied his works with some care,' is something more than a
blind syncretism, destitute of principles, or a fumbling among
conflicting systems to pick out such theories as please us."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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