Page:Mind (Old Series) Volume 11.djvu/214

IV. THE HISTOEICAL METHOD. By Professor H. SIDGWICK. A CEITICAL reader holding with Knies l that a ' Historical Method ' ought, in strictness of language, to mean a method of studying history may possibly object in limine to the presence of this paper in a Philosophical Journal. Such an objection certainly deserves an answer, since the antithesis between the ' historical ' and the ' philosophical ' view and treatment, either of the facts of external nature or of the life of man and human society, must be admitted to be ancient and orthodox. And it is convenient to give my answer to the objection at once ; because this answer is in fact my reason for selecting this subject for discussion. I find that this antithesis between ' historical ' and ' philosophical ' is not only ancient but antiquated : it does not correspond to the prevailing tendencies of educated thought in the present age. For if we are to define the scope of Philosophy neutrally i.e., so as to avoid implying any of the disputed assump- tions of particular philosophical schools we can only define it as the study in which the principles, methods and main results of the special sciences and departments of systematic thought are compared with the view of reducing them, so far as possible, to a higher unity of system. And, if we accept this or some similar definition of Philosophy, it may, I think, be truly said that a belief in the Historical Method is the most widely and strongly entertained philosophical conviction at the present day. In speaking thus of a ' belief in the Historical Method ' I may seem to have used a very vague phrase ; but I have done so deliberately. Generally speaking, when we try to fix in impartial language, for the purpose of examination, a prevalent philosophical opinion of recent growth, we have to submit to a certain initial vagueness in our conception of it. To get rid of this vagueness will be the main aim of this paper ; but if I tried to get rid of it at the outset by the exactest possible definition, I should inevitably alter the object that I am proposing for examination : I should turn it into a doctrine either more limited in its acceptance 1 In the last edition (1883) of his Politische Oekonomie vom geschichtlichen Standpunkte, p. vi.