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
3. We assert in our article that M. Cousin, though he professes
to come out of the sphere of psychology, and to rise legitimately
to ontology, remains always there; and, in point of fact, the
ontology he asserts is only an abstraction or generalization of
psychological facts. The reviewer is almost shocked at this, and
is "tempted to think that the time" we claim to have spent in
studying the works of Cousin with some care "might have been
better employed in the acquisition of some useful knowledge more
within the reach of our 'understanding.'" It is possible. But
what has he to allege against what we asserted, and think we
proved? Nothing that we can find except that Cousin professes to
attain, and perhaps believes he does attain, to real objective
existence, and, scientifically, to real ontology. But, my good
friend, that is nothing to the purpose. The question is not as to
what Cousin professes to have done, or what he has really
attempted to do, but what he has actually done. When we allege
that the being, the God asserted by Cousin, is, on his system,
his principles, and method, only an abstraction or a
generalization; you do not prove us wrong by reiterating his
assertion that it is real being, that it is the living God, for
it is, though you seem not to be aware of it, that very assertion
that is denied. We readily concede that Cousin does not
_profess_ to rise to ontology by induction from his
psychology, but we maintain that the only ontology he attains to
is simply an induction from his psychology, and therefore is, and
can be, only an abstraction or a generalization. We must here
reproduce a passage from our own article.
"What is certain, and this is all the ontologist need assert,
or, in fact, can assert, is, that ontology is neither an
induction nor a deduction from psychological data. God is not,
and cannot be, the generalization of our own souls. But it does
not follow from this that we do not think that which is God,
and that it is from thought we do and must take it. We take it
from thought and by thinking. What is objected to in the
psychologists is the assumption that thought is a purely
psychological or subjective fact, and that from this
psychological or subjective fact we can, by way of induction,
attain to ontological truth. But as we understand M. Cousin,
and we studied his works with some care thirty or thirty-five
years ago, and had the honor of his private correspondence,
this he never pretends to do. What he claims is, that in the
analysis of consciousness we detect a class of facts or ideas
which are not psychological or subjective, but really
ontological, and do actually carry us out of the region of
psychology into that of ontology. That his account of these
facts or ideas is to be accepted as correct or adequate we do
not pretend, but that he _professes_ to recognize them and
distinguish them from purely psychological facts is undeniable.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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