Basel concepts in philosophy : an inquiry into being, non-being, and becoming

Preface

The motive of this volume is a desire to restore the primacy of certain conceptions which are in danger of disappearing from our modern thinking-, and to reform others which, as I think, have been wrongly or inadequately conceived. Reflection has led me to dissent from monistic pantheism on the one hand, and from agnosticism on the other, two of the leading tendencies in the thought of our century, and to seek a metaphysical basis for philosophy that may adequately ground a rational theory of knowledge and being. With this end in view, I have sought to reconstruct philosophy upon the trinal categories of being, non-being, and becoming, and also to reform the current methods of metaphysics by showing that a completely rational idea of being can be achieved only when we represent it under our highest and most concrete categories and translate it into self-conscious personal spirit. The result is a spiritualistic metaphysic which leads us to ground the world of reality in an Absolute possessed of supreme intelligence, goodness, and love.

The order in which the basal concepts emerged in my own thinking, is substantially as follows : Having, by historic study and reflection, become con-

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viuced of the identity of the logos with the principle of conscious personality, I began to see its value as a means of penetrating the opaque absolute of the agnostic creed, and obtaining an intelligible concej)- tion of its inner nature and connection with the relative. The application of the logos-category led directly to the personal construction of being and to the idea of the Absolute as personal, self-conscious spint. It was at this point that the dualistic light came to me in an intuition of the immanent movement or dialectic of spirit. For it became clear that the activity of a self-conscious spirit must be first of all intellectual, and that its primal intellection would be dual in its nature, including a positive intuition of "being's self or the logos, and a negative intuition of its not-self or the a-logos. And reflection made it clear also that the logos and a-logos are primal and mutually exclusive opposites, and that while spiritual being is to be conceived as exercising internally the activity which intuites the loositive and negative terms, yet the object of the negative intuition, the a-logos, must be excluded from being as its opposite; that is, as non-being.

The exclusion of non-being from being as its opposite, never to be identified with it, laid the foundations of a dualistic creed, and through it of a reform of spiritual dialectic in the direction of a. non-pantheistic theory of creation and the connection of the Absolute with the sphere of relativity. For it became clear that the primal intuition of non-being would motive an outgo of volitional energy into the

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negative sphere for its suppression and annulment and that the nature generated out of it would not be pure being but becoming, a creature including in its constitution opposite moments of being and non-being. Thus, through the conception of the negative datum, I began to see that an answer might be forthcoming to the hitherto unresolved problem, why the creative energy of the Absolute falls short of an absolute result and only produces the finite and imperfect. The book itself must answer the question how far the solution is to be regarded as satisfactory. For the last, but not least important, insight I have to thank the great master of thinking, Aristotle. The identification of his category of self - activity with the nature of absolute and self-existent being, was the " holding turn " that reduced all the elements to final unity and coherence.

In the unfolding of these basal concepts a certain use of symbolism has become necessary. But the discerning reader will penetrate the shell to the kernel that it conceals. In conclusion, I wish to disclaim any jDurpose to add another to existing systems of philosophy, of which the world is already over-full. My ambition is rather, through the emphasising of certain fundamental ideas, to impart a new spiritual vitality to the body philosophic. It is possible for philosophy to be spiritually dead while it is intellectually alive. But it is only through its spiritual energy that it is able to become an important organ of truth and to minister to the highest needs of humanity.

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I wish to acknowledg-e the great debt I owe to my honored teacher, the venerable McCosh, to the spirit of whose realistic philosophy I hope my own work will be found to be loyal. My acknowledgments are due to Mr. A. L. Frothing-ham, Sr., of Princeton, for important sugg-estions reg-arding- the principle of dualism and for kindness in reading and criticising my manuscript ; also to my colleague, Professor A. F. West, for painstaking and appreciative interest in my work and for many helpful criticisms and suggestions, and to my pupil, Mr. G. A. Tawney, for valuable assistance in reading proof-sheets. There are other obligations which cannot be acknowledged in detail. My indebtedness to the masters, Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Augustine, Kant, Hegel, and Lotze, is too obvious to require special mention.

Alexander T. Ormond.

Princeton, January 20, 1894.