Page:Philosophical Review Volume 1.djvu/23

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No. i.]
PREFATORY NOTE.
7

rendered by Psychology which, by enlarging its field of observation and improving its methods of investigation, has within the last decade probably outstripped every other province of human knowledge in the rate of its growth. A somewhat similar advance may be expected for Logic, Ethics, etc. But even if each of these subjects had a specialized organ, there would still be need of a general philosophical magazine to bring to a focus the light generated in the several provincial centres and to reflect it upon the wider undertakings of the federal executive. It may not always be easy in practice to draw the line between what belongs to general Philosophy and what should more properly appear in a specialized journal. Nothing remains but for an editor, with due regard for the work of others, to keep always in mind the best interests of Philosophy. To this high trust The Philosophical Review would be recreant did it not, for every branch of the Philosophy of Mind and the Philosophy of Nature, equally encourage the accumulation and interpretation of facts and the criticism and construction of systems. Its domain is as broad as mind and what mind knows. And it will be an open forum alike for those who increase the stock of positive data and for those who strive to see new facts in their bearings and relations and to trace them up to their ultimate speculative implications. It has no dread either of "positivism" or of "metaphysics"; for, in the phrase of Kant, facts without theory are blind, and theory without facts is empty.

With the generality of its scope, the Review will combine an impartiality and catholicity of tone and spirit. It will not be the organ of any institution, or of any sect, or of any interest. Though receiving support from private endowments, so that its financial basis is sound and durable, it must be