The Monist, Vol. 2, 1891-1892 : $b A quarterly magazineVarious
Philosophy
The Monist, Vol. 2, 1891-1892 : $b A quarterly magazine
Various
Philosophy -- Periodicals
Some facts dominate the question, viewed as a whole. It is necessary to
show the work of the scientific mind, which has the result of creating
new mental habits. It is necessary to consider also that the disorder,
_the spirit of evil_, so finely analysed by M. Paulhan, corresponds
chiefly to the interpretations of ignorance, to the exaggerations of
sentiment, and to the dreams, more or less monstrous, of inventive
fantasy. It is necessary, finally, if they wish to augur of the future,
to endeavor to disengage the laws of construction, still badly defined,
of our political fabrics. The thought of M. Paulhan is good at bottom,
and the materials with which he constructs the _possible future_ are
taken from the positive conditions of our mental and social life: in the
practical order, “co-operation” is added to the social systems already
existing, although disturbed, such as the family and the nation; in the
ideal order, the conception, beyond that of humanity, of a “cosmical
whole,” and a “universe,” which, to repeat it after Comte, will be
favorable to man, in a certain sense, seeing that he causes it to exist.
We recommend the reading of this book. One’s time is never lost with
a thinker of the stamp of M. Paulhan; he has the merit this time of
disclosing to us in a few pages a vast horizon, where some points are
delineated with clearness. Logicism has caused much evil in our country.
Let us now beware of mysticism!
* * * * *
One of the most curious episodes of this new mysticism is assuredly
the Buddhist preaching, begun in France by a small group of writers.
M. AUGUSTIN CHABOSEAU, one of the representatives of this religious
tendency, publishes a work, _Essai sur la philosophie boudhique_,[50]
which it is expedient to mention. M. Chaboseau has thought it would be of
interest to sum up in a volume the results of the studies on Buddhism,
and to present it “such as science has proved it, that is to say very
different from what Christian polemists, worldly amusers, theosophic
fanatics, endeavor to disseminate.” He has had the ambition to write this
volume, and for my part, I do not refuse him my curiosity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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