Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 8.djvu/15

'1 NEW SERIES. No. 29.] [JANUARY, 1899. MIND A QUARTERLY REVIEW OF PSYCHOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY. -3se- I. PHILOSOPHY AND THE STUDY OF PHILOSOPHERS. 1 BY D. G. RITCHIE. THOSE who are engaged in the study of metaphysical philo- sophy often find themselves criticised by those who are working at the special sciences on the ground that, while the special sciences are continually adding to the sum of human knowledge and to man's power over nature, meta- physical philosophy makes no progress, but consists merely in a chaos of rival and contradictory speculations. And it is sometimes said that a clear proof of the barrenness of the pursuit is to be found in the attention devoted to the philosophers of the past, and even of a very remote past. The student of chemistry or biology is referred to the latest text-books ; the student of metaphysics is sent back to Locke and Kant, to Descartes and Spinoza, or even to Plato and Aristotle. Some great scientific workers have themselves been imbued with the taste or passion for philo- sophy, and, like Huxley for instance, have been able to appreciate both the scientific and the philosophical work of Descartes or Aristotle. Some scientific men also recognise that in their own special departments a study of the history of scientific ideas is not an altogether irrelevant part of their work. Still it remains true, that the average scientific specialist feels convinced, or speaks as if he were convinced, of the futility of metaphysics, and regards the history of metaphysical variations and our occupation with it as a confirmation of his sceptical attitude. 1 Presidential address delivered to the Aristotelian Society, 4th November, 1898.