the world a spiritual system: an outline of metaphysics

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THE WORLD A SPIRITUAL SYSTI i i epeeets Uae arte

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

Preface

Metapuysics has been defined as “that, of which those who listen understand nothing, and which he who speaks does not himself understand”; and a metaphysician has been declared to be a “blind man looking on a dark night for a black cat that isn’t there!” These extreme statements probably represent the view many persons entertain of this field of thought. It appears to them to be a region of cloud and smoke, conflict and confusion, where men are blindly groping about and “ignorant armies clash by night.’ They hear the distant din and occasionally see its dust, but are uncertain as to what it is all about, or whether it has any real meaning.

This chaos, however, is more apparent than real, and it requires but slight acquaintance with metaphysics to see that it is a world of order and has an object in view; in fact, so far from being confusion worse confounded, metaphysics is distinctly an effort to escape intellectual confusion and reach a clear and consistent view of the world. It is probable that there are many persons, students, professional men, teachers, and general readers, that have given little special study to the subject, who vii viii PREFACE would be glad to be led into this world along an elementary and plain path. It is in the hope of meeting this want that this book is offered to such readers. It does not attempt to cover the whole field, and scarcely touches some of its deeper problems, but it endeavors to give an outline of metaphysics from the idealistic point of view. It especially seeks to be constructive and work out a general theory of the world as a spiritual system. The popular aim of the book explains its elementary form, and its avoidance, as far as possible, of technical terms.

The trend of metaphysics has long been in the direction of idealism, but in recent years this system has assumed popular forms, true or perverted. It is now out on the street and in the air, and this creates an occasion for a plain exposition of the subject. Theology is also being rewritten in the light of idealistic or monistic philosophy, and this book endeavors to apply idealism in the field of religion and life. Metaphysics must*submit to the pragmatic test, and at this point idealism wins large vindication.

The main object of this book, however, is not to make converts to the theory it presents. The metaphysician as a rule is chiefly intent on seeing and stating truth, and is less concerned in controversy and converts. He knows he can only catch his own glimpse of reality and that ultimate truth is infinitely wider and deeper than he can see; therefore, he strains his vision to discern what he can of the great world, and then is content to

PREFACE ix make report of his quest and let others search and see for themselves. In the last result every one must be his own metaphysician, and we can do little more than present our varying views and get what help we can from one another. Yet while this book is idealistic, it endeavors to state other views impartially, and it may still serve as an introduction to the general subject.

WASHINGTON, Pa.

CHAPTER

I. Ill

IV.

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VII.

TABLE-OF CONDENTS

THE NATURE OF METAPHYSICS 1. The Definition of Metaphysics 2. The Method of Metaphysics 3. The Assumptions of Metaphysics 4. The Spirit and Object of Metaphysics 5. Systems of Metaphysics é

THE WORLD FROM DIFFERENT VIEWPOINTS I. The Plain Man’s World 2. The Scientist’s World 3 3. The Metaphysician’s World 5

THE SUBJECTIVITY OF SENSATION . 5 1. The Physical View 2. The Physiological View 3. The Psychological View 4. The Metaphysical View

THE SUBJECTIVITY OF SPACE 1. The Theory Explained 2. Reasons of the Theory ; A

SUBJECTIVE REALITY : ; 1. The Soul’s Knowledge of Itself . 2. The Fundamental Faculties of the Soul 3. Objects of Experience 4. General Characters of the Soul

How WE REACH OBJECTIVE REALITY . xi xil TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER VIII. THE NATURE OF OBJECTIVE REALITY 1. The World as Phenomenon 2. The World as Mind in Man 3. The World as Life 4. The World as Thought 5. The World as Sensibility 6. The World as Will 7. General Characters of the World 8. Man the Key of the Universe

IX. THE-WORLD AND GOD . é 1. God Revealed in the World 2. God as Cause of the World 3. God and Man 4. Summary of Idealism

X. APPLICATIONS OF IDEALISM 1. The Relation of Mind and Boys 2. Immortality : 4 3. The Problem of Evil . 4. Idealism and Religion 5. Idealism and Life

APPENDIX: A Brief Course of Suggested Reading .

225 226 233 256 289 298

In Him we live and move and have our being. — PAUL.

Take all in a word: the truth in God’s breast Lies trace for trace upon ours impressed : Though he is so bright and we so dim, We are made in his image to witness him. — BROWNING,

There is an inmost center in us all,

Where truth abides in fullness; and around, Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in, This perfect, clear perception — which is truth. A baffling and perverting carnal mesh

Binds it, and makes all error: and, to know, Rather consists in opening out a way

Whence the imprisoned splendor may escape, Than in effecting entry for a light

Supposed to be without. Watch narrowly The demonstration of a truth, its birth,

And you trace back the effluence to its spring And source within us; where broods radiance vast,

To be elicited ray by ray. Aphatrial 3

Dark is the world to thee: thyself art the reason why; For is He not all but that which has power to feel ‘I am I’?

Speak to Him thou, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet — Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet. — TENNYSON.

Our little systems have their day ; They have their day and cease to be: They are but broken lights of thee, And thou, O Lord, art more than they.

Let knowledge grow from more to more, But more of reverence in us dwell ; That mind and soul, according well,

May make one music as before, ut vaster.

E — TENNYSON.

xili

THE WORLD A SPIRITUAL Snes id ey!

Chapter I The Nature Of Metaphysics 1. The Definition Of Metaphysics

METAPHysiIcs is the science of being. To understand this definition, which compresses a vast system of thought into a single, short sentence, we must unfold its meaning. There are many sciences which deal with limited areas or aspects of being, each special science investigating and systematizing the facts and laws of its own field. Thus astronomy studies the heavenly bodies, determining their sizes, distances, orbits, motions, weights, temperature, and composition, with a glance backward into their origin and forward into their destiny. At the other extreme, molecular physics studies molecules and atoms, endeavoring to measure these minute masses and to resolve the atoms into swarms of electrons and possibly to dissolve the electrons into ether whirls or centers of electricity or energy. Ina similar way, botany studies plants, and zodlogy studies animals. Biology strikes deeper and enters the region of life as it is exhibited in both plants

B 1 and animals. Psychology goes deeper still, and penetrates the world of mind as it is found in man, seeking accurately to ascertain and analyze mental facts and to derive their laws. Ethics studies the special field of mental life manifested in moral character and conduct. Theology studies God, seeking to discover the nature of his being and his relations to man, especially in the practical field of religion. Thus each of the hundred or more sciences investigates its own field. Yet while no science attempts to go outside its proper limits, all sciences overlap one another at their mutual boundaries, and are together interrelated and form one continuous and harmonious system of truth.

Some of these sciences include several kindred fields or subordinate sciences. Thus physics investigates matter in the mass, whether the mass be an astronomical sun or achemicalatom. Biology studies life in all its myriad forms, and thus freely crosses the line between botany and zodlogy; it is concerned with the principles that are common to both these fields. Psychology, while it is primarily concerned with mental life, yet cannot keep from invading the body and studying the interrelations of the two widely distinct fields of mind and matter. Sociology, with its shadowy outlines and vague contents, endeavors to grasp a wide field of diverse facts embraced within economics, ethics, politics, sanitation, and other sciences, and is thus concerned with the structural elements of society and the principles that are common to these many subordinate sciences. Theology has an immensely wide reach, endeavoring to lay hold of the nature of God and of man in themselves and in their mutual relations.

It will be observed that the wider the field of a science is, the fewer are its specific facts and principles; the more extensive it is, the lessintensiveitis. Botany hasa narrower but a richer field than biology, for all the vital facts within its field belong to it, whereas biology is concerned only with those that are common to botany and zoology. Asa science rises above and includes within its range several sciences, it leaves behind it all but that which is common to them ; and, therefore, the wider the circle it covers, the less rich it is in details and the more it is reduced to general principles. At last it may become only a skeleton of principle denuded of all flesh.

This principle carried to its logical limit gives us metaphysics. Metaphysics is the universal science which seeks to grasp the whole field of being, the common ground of all the special sciences. As biology takes the many elements of botany and the many elements of zodlogy and picks out the relatively few that are common to both and drops all others out of view, so metaphysics endeavors to dissect out the few principles or the one principle that is common to all fields. It proceeds on the assumption that there is one mode, or, at most, two or several modes, of being back of all the myriad forms of reality which we see in the world; and its grand endeavor is to penetrate to this ultimate principle and discover its nature and laws; to rise above all specific differences in the sciences and construct one comprehensive science.

Metaphysics thus has no boundary lines such as limit the special sciences. Wherever reality manifests itself, there lies its field. It sends out a decree that all the world shall be taxed in its interest. Yet it is not primarily concerned with the wealth of details that constitute the richness of a specific field of fact, but only with the underlying skeleton of principle that is its framework in common with all other fields. In particular, metaphysics crosses that deepest line of division that cleaves the world, the gulf between mind and matter. These two fields that seem so widely sundered belong equally to its domain, and its chief concern is to determine their mutual relations, and especially to discover whether they are really diverse or are only two aspects or modes of the same fundamental reality. Since the Creator falls within the field of being as truly as any creature, metaphysics includes God in its view and endeavors to reach his nature and his relations to the whole of being. In accordance with the principle that the wider the field of a science is, the fewer are its elements, metaphysics has the least wealth of detail and is reduced to the barest skeleton of being. When it finds one principle or element that underlies and explains the universe, it attains its goal.}

1 Philosophy is the general science of ultimate principles, and divides into the two branches of epistemology, which investigates the nature and validity of knowledge, and of metaphysics, which investigates the nature of ultimate reality.

But having reached this goal of a unitary principle or germ of ultimate reality, the metaphysician at once proceeds to evolve it again into the universe. He is not content with a metaphysical skeleton, but reclothes it with flesh and blood and makes his world full-rounded and warm with life: only his new world is now reconstructed on metaphysical lines and his central luminous principle is ‘the master light of all his seeing.’

2. THE METHOD oF METAPHYSICS

The search for truth is not a haphazard adventure, but a systematic process. The several sciences, therefore, for carrying on their investigations have various rules, methods, and instruments, which experience has devised and found necessary and efficient for the best work. Some sciences, such as astronomy and chemistry, have an elaborate outfit of instruments, and others, such as mathematics, have a complicated system of technical terms and symbols. The fundamental methods of all sciences, however, are the same. These are the mental processes involved in reaching reality in any field, such as accurate observation, trained judgment, correct reasoning, constructive imagination, and experimental test and proof. When these operations are properly conducted, the truth is likely to be attained, though the regulative rules and instrumental helps may be few or imperfect. But if the mental processes are loose and illogical, the whole structure reared on them may be unsound, though it may present an imposing appearance of learned research.

Metaphysics has no observatory or laboratory, no instruments and few rules. It carries on its work almost wholly by mental processes; its workshop is within the mind. It does not follow from this, however, that it has no method and is loose and lawless in its ways of working. It is sometimes thought that metaphysics is not a true science, but is simply a subjective maze and mist of individual speculations without principle or system; that every metaphysician spins his own web out of his own brain according to his own wild will. This is a mistake. Metaphysics, like any other science, is an attempt to systematize our knowledge of a certain field; to clear it of errors and to clarify and arrange our conceptions of it so that they will reflect and fit reality; and so far from being loose and vague in its methods, it seeks to reason with the greatest care and rigor, to question and crossquestion every fact and theory with the most painstaking thoroughness and pitiless impartiality, and to spare no assumption or prejudice or appearance, however self-evident it may claim to be or however it may be supported by authority or consecrated by tradition. It has therefore been defined by Professor William James as simply ‘‘an unusually obstinate attempt to think clearly and consistently.” Metaphysics has a passion for truth, and its one fundamental method is the most strenuous reasoning.

This reasoning, however, is not carried on in a secret chamber of the mind or up in the air, remote from the reasonings and experiences of everyday life. The meta-

THE NATURE OF METAPHYSICS a physician is sometimes looked upon as a kind of mental wizard who is practicing some hidden art, and the very name to some people has an uncanny sound. But the philosopher has the same faculties as other men, and has no magic or patented process for reaching truth. His logical operations are the same as those used not only in other sciences, but in politics and business and all the affairs of life; in fact, the metaphysician does not differ in his logic from “the man on the street,” except that he is more careful. All hisreasonings are carried on out in the open where they can be seen and known of all men. The constant test of metaphysics is experience, the common experience of the world. In fact, as we shall see, experience is the very stuff it handles and is endeavoring to systematize and explain. And every kind of experience is given a voice in shaping this explanation, whether of mind or heart, body or world, soul or society. The metaphysician exclaims, with the Roman actor, “I ama man, and nothing pertaining to man is foreign to me.” He has been charged with excessive intellectualism as though his interpretation of reality were purely the abstract output of a cold logical machine, but he is deeply immersed in the world, and his results are the full-orbed expression of his total experience.

‘There is one method or instrument of investigation in metaphysics so important as to deserve special mention. This is the method of self-consistency, or its opposite, contradiction. Metaphysics assumes, as we shall see, the unity and harmony of all truth. Coherence in the results of our thinking is therefore a mark of sound logic, and inconsistency is infallible proof of error. The metaphysician never stops with an assumption or principle until he has traced it through all its consequences to its final end; and if at any point it fails to fit in nicely and smoothly with accepted knowledge, he experiences a jar that warns him the delicate organism of truth is out of gear or balance, and he hastens to search for and correct the maladjustment. Metaphysics abhors a contradiction, as it used to be said that nature abhors a vacuum, and it cannot rest until it has wrought truth out into a universal and harmonious system.

3. THE ASSUMPTIONS OF METAPHYSICS

Every science starts with a large stock of assumptions. It can investigate and establish only the facts and principles contained in its own limited field and must assume the generally accepted results of other fields. Geology accepts and uses the results of physics, chemistry, biology, and other sciences. Ethics accepts the results of psychology, psychology accepts physiology, physiology accepts chemistry, chemistry accepts physics, and thus every science is built upon foundations of faith, The proved principles of one science become the assumptions of the next.

Metaphysics as the universal science in one sense starts with the largest stock of assumptions, as it accepts and uses the results of all other sciences. But in another sense it starts with the fewest assumptions, for its aim is to reach the ultimate principles of reality, and therefore it must sift and search the postulates of all other sciences and have as few as possible of its own. Assumptions are its dislike, if not its abhorrence, and if possible it would have none of them. This, however, cannot be. Human reasoning is a process that always begins in the middle of things, because it can never get back of its own first principles. It must have something to stand on before it can take its first step, and to renounce all assumptions would be to cut the ground from under its own feet. An assumption is an act of faith rather than of logic, and trust is older than reason in human experience, as in the evolution of life the heart is older than the brain. We must trust something before we can know anything, and the metaphysician cannot escape this necessity. He, too, is a man of faith and must walk by faith, at least in the first steps of his metaphysical journey. Nevertheless, he does well to be as sparing and skeptical of assumptions as he can. It is his business to be suspicious of them and to “ prove the spirits, whether they are of” the truth, “because many false’’ assumptions “are gone out into the world.” Rigorous reasoning is his method, and everything must submit to the severest search and test.

Yet there are a few principles that the metaphysician must assume, for without them he cannot even begin to reason. In common with all other men he sees and accepts the axioms of mathematics as self-evident truths. That things equal to the same thing are equal to one

Ke) THE WORLD A SPIRITUAL SYSTEM another, that a finite whole is greater than any of its parts, and so on, are found in the metaphysician’s stock of assumptions. These things cannot be proved in the sense that they can be analyzed and demonstrated by a process of reasoning, for they are immediately perceived as unanalyzable truths, and no reasoning about them can make them any clearer or more certain. Ofa similar nature is the principle that every change of being must have a cause. While all our experience confirms this, yet it is not derived from experience, but is a logical necessity of thought. We cannot think it away, or conceive a change without thinking of it as being effected by some cause. Mental changes are quite as subject to this principle as physical changes, and it is a universal law of being. If there were no such law, there could be no order in the system of being, and all science would be impossible.

There are two other assumptions of metaphysics that are of special importance. One is the trustworthiness of our mental faculties and processes. The human mind is constituted to know truth and to discover truth. Of course it is subject in all its processes to error, as the swarms of errors that have attended all its thinking abundantly prove. But it can test its processes, constantly compare its results with experience, clear itself of errors, and thus ever approximate more closely to reality. The attempt to reach the truth is often a long and hard battle, but it is a battle that can be won. It may not be the absolute truth that is reached, it may be rela-

THE NATURE OF METAPHYSICS II tive to our faculties, it may be truth seen through a glass darkly, but still it is truth. This principle, then, must be assumed in the beginning of all our reasoning: without this assumption we could not prove or disprove anything, for all our results would be vitiated by the constitutional untrustworthiness of the mind itself.

The other important assumption is the unity and harmony of all reality. Being breaks into infinite variety, yet amidst all its varied forms it maintains its own inner cohesion and harmony. However diverse and apparently antagonistic its manifestations are, we must believe that they all fit together with absolute nicety and that there are nowhere any faults or gaps, any misfit joints or open seams, that would break or mar the perfect continuity and harmony of the system. However persistent and pugnacious, formidable and alarming the appearances, there must be no real contradiction or inconsistency inthe realm of being. All its radii must run to the same center, all its manifold manifestations must melt into one unity. Now we cannot prove this, certainly we cannot wait to prove it before we begin our reasonings, perhaps we never can proveit. And yet we must assume it, for without such assumption all science again becomes impossible. Science is simply a transcript of the order that reigns in the realm of being, and if there be no such order, there can be no science. Our progress in the growth of knowledge may confirm this assumption of the unity of truth, but we must start with it as a postulate, and may never reach the point where this faith becomes knowledge. Yet faith is not necessarily a weaker kind of belief than reasoned knowledge, but may be the surest of our convictions.

And so metaphysics is built on trust, and its first word is faith. But having accepted these few, primal, necessary assumptions of thought, it suddenly grows skeptical and refuses to accept any more. Having taken these first steps by faith, it henceforth walks by sight.

4. THE SPIRIT AND OBJECT OF METAPHYSICS

The spirit in which and the object for which a science is prosecuted are important matters. Metaphysics should first of all conduct its reasonings in a truth-loving, truth-seeking spirit. This spirit should characterize all science, but it should especially mark metaphysics. Its aim is to reach ultimate truth, and its only hope of success is to clear its eyes of all prejudice and passion and look with unclouded vision. It should therefore be very honest and candid, patient and persistent, in its search, with an eye single for the truth. Tradition and authority can_have little place in its processes. Prejudice and partisanship should play no part in its inquiries, and its one pursuit and passion should be to reach reality.

And, therefore, the metaphysician may well be characterized by the spirit of humility. Presumption and pride incapacitate him for that calm and clear thought that is his only means of seeing truth. Dogmatism, offensive in all men, is especially and unpardonably obnoxious in him. Occasionally there has been a metaphysician, like Schopenhauer, who has been obsessed of a high and mighty dogmatism that would settle all _ the problems of the universe by its own zpse dirit and then would ruthlessly impose its decrees on all men. Such a spirit is not likely to find the truth, for it is so possessed of its own preconceived opinions that it is blind to everything else. When the light that is in the metaphysician is darkness, how great is that darkness ! Truth loves to dwell in a humble heart, and a cautious and candid mind is more likely to find it. In attempting to walk the dizzy heights of metaphysical speculation, we need to walk humbly and take heed lest we fall. At best we can know only in part, and we must not assume that we do or can know all. The true metaphysician has little of the aggressive spirit and is not anxious to make converts. It is enough for him to go out into the wilderness of speculation and endeavor to catch some glimpse of reality for himself. On coming back he is willing to make report of what he has seen, but he does not wish others to accept his report on his authority ; at most he only desires to disclose the vision that has illuminated the world for him, and his invitation is, Come and see. The object of metaphysics is doubtless a puzzle to many minds. The practical man judges things by their practical results, and at the end of every enterprise or adventure he looks for material profit. It must be confessed that, judged by this standard, metaphysics has nothing to show. It never invents a magic machine, discovers a new mine of wealth, or affects the price of stocks in the market. Yet it may have all the higher aim and be worth all the more because it rises above these things. Man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth ; his real life is found, not in outer, but ininner, wealth. Even physical science is most worthy of our esteem and is most successful when it is dissociated from any thought of gain and seeks truth for its own sake. The most splendid discoveries of science, even’those which afterward have showered the greatest and most abundant material blessings on the world, have been the work of men who, like Agassiz, had “no time to makemoney.” It is one of the noblest impulses of the soul that impels it to know and to set no bounds to its knowing; to seek truth for its own sake, with no desire or thought of material reward. This disinterested love of truth reaches its purest and intensest degree in metaphysics, which is at the farthest possible remove from the manufactory and the market, and is closest to the sun of truth and the stars of eternity.

But even from the practical point of view, metaphysics is not without justification. Every instinct points to some deep need. The soul has an instinct for knowledge that cannot rest or be satisfied until it has strained itself to the utmost to pierce the mystery of existence; and all such knowledge fits and arms it for better living. Any truth once acquired is so much fine capital added to the soul’s wealth; is so much expansion and enrichment of the soul’s life; is a higher level whence it

THE NATURE OF METAPHYSICS I5 can look out upon a wider horizon and climb to still loftier summits. Metaphysical speculation, in so far as it reaches truth, takes the soul so much nearer the center and total significance of all reality, and thereby brings the largest and richest enhancement to its wealth, lifts it to the highest peak, and gives it the broadest and most splendid view of the world. Metaphysics feeds faith and shows it that life is something rich and grand and infinitely worth living. While it is true that philosophy has in some instances reached’ skeptical results and bred a pessimistic spirit, yet its general history has been that it has laid foundations on which to build a solid structure of life, reared altars of faith and worship, and shed an optimistic brightness over the world. The human mind would prove itself unworthy of its great powers if it did not attempt to climb the loftiest Alp of thought, and the world would have been less rich and strong if metaphysics had not come to attempt this achievement. And as the Alps send down streams to irrigate the plain and make it bloom and bear fine fruit and even plant cities at their feet, so metaphysical truth comes down to fertilize all the fields of the world. Every thought we reach on these high summits will help to shape and color all the practical affairs and even the most trivial details of life.

5. SYSTEMS OF METAPHYSICS

Before entering the land of metaphysical speculation it may be well to take a general look at its map and get a view of its main mountain ranges and peaks. Metaphysics is popularly supposed to be a labyrinthine maze of mysteries in which one may wander and get hopelessly lost, but it really admits of simple classification that will enable us to know the general region of thought through which we shall move.