Man's Place in the Cosmos: And Other Essays |
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Absolute abstract action activity Agnostic Agnosticism analysis appearance argument aspects attempt Balfour belief Bradley Bradley's called causes chapter character conception conclusion consciousness contradiction cosmic process creed criticism distinctions diversity doctrine doubt Empiricism ethical ethical nature experience explain expression fact finite fundamental German Idealism Geschichte des Materialismus harmony Hegel Hegelian human Hume Huxley idea ideal identity impulse individual infinite intellectual Kant knowledge law of identity logical man-the meaning mechanical ment merely metaphysics mind moral movement Münsterberg naturalistic nature object Pantheism passage perception pheno phenomena philosophical physiological position postulate premisses present principle Professor Huxley Professor Huxley's psychology purely question rational realise reality reason recognise relation result sceptical scientific seems sensation sense Shadworth Hodgson simply somehow speak Spinoza spirit stimulus supposed teleology term theory things thinkers thought tion true truth ultimate uncon unity universe volume whole word
Popular passages
Page 13 - But nature makes that mean : so, over that art Which you say adds to nature, is an art That nature makes. You see, sweet maid, we marry A gentler scion to the wildest stock, And make conceive a bark of baser kind By bud of nobler race : this is an art Which does mend nature, change it rather, but The art itself is nature.
Page 216 - I am a part of all that I have met; Yet all experience is an arch wherethro' Gleams that untravell'd world, whose margin fades For ever and for ever when I move. How dull it is to pause, to make an end, To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use ! As tho
Page 6 - Let us understand, once for all, that the ethical progress of society depends, not on imitating the cosmic process, still less in running away from it, but in combating it.
Page 6 - I have already urged, the practice of that which is ethically best — what we call goodness or virtue — involves a course of conduct which, in all respects, is opposed to that which leads to success in the cosmic struggle for existence.
Page 6 - ... the gladiatorial theory of existence. It demands that each man who enters into the enjoyment of the advantages of a polity shall be mindful of his debt to those who have laboriously constructed it ; and shall take heed that no act of his weakens the fabric in which he has been permitted to live. Laws and moral precepts are directed to the end of curbing the cosmic process and reminding the individual of his duty to the community, to the protection and influence of which he owes, if not existence...
Page 4 - Cosmic evolution may teach us how the good and the evil tendencies of man may have come about ; but, in itself, it is incompetent to furnish any better reason why what we call good is preferable to what we call evil than we had before.
Page 116 - ... is one simple, undivided, active being: as it perceives ideas, it is called the understanding, and as it produces or otherwise operates about them, it is called the will. Hence there can be no idea formed of a soul or spirit: for all ideas whatever, being passive and inert, vide Sect. 25, they cannot represent unto us, by way of image or likeness, that which acts.
Page 116 - This is what some hold; but, so far as I can see, the words will, soul, spirit, do not stand for different ideas, or, in truth, for any idea at all, but for something which is very different from ideas, and which, being an agent, cannot be like unto, or represented by, any idea whatsoever. Though it must be owned at the same time that we have some notion of soul, spirit, and the operations of the mind such as willing, loving, hating; inasmuch as we know or understand the meaning of these words.
Page 55 - The great of old ! The dead but sceptred sovrans who still rule Our spirits from their urns.
Page 136 - Metaphysics is the finding of bad reasons for what we believe upon instinct, but to find these reasons is no less an instinct.