Abstract
PROF. PERRY says there is a sort of gentlemen's agreement not to ask ultimate questions. “People do not as a rule insist upon knowing the meaning of things, further than to assign them a place in their world of familiar objects.” Yet philosophy differs from other studies in that it continues to press inquiry beyond the point where it customarily stops. “It sets no limits to the questions it asks, save to insist that they shall really be questions.“ When it is objected that if inquiries are carried too far the methods of science have to be left behind, the philosopher's reply is that he will use what methods he can. Yet the questions which he asks are all familiar in kind: What is real? Why did it happen? How do I know? What ought I to do? Everyone philosophises up to a point; the difference between the metaphysician and the rest of the world is one of degree only, and lies in the thoroughness and obstinacy with which the latter pursues his quest. The philosopher is the intellectual frontiersman, who attempts to domesticate the wild areas which lie beyond the cultivated fields of science. Students of science will read this lecture of Prof. Perry's with interest and with a large measure of agreement.Printed in Great Britain by R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, Edinburgh.
A Defence of Philosophy.
By Ralph Barton Perry. Pp. 56. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1931.) 4s. 6d. net.
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Miscellany. Nature 128, 964 (1931). https://doi.org/10.1038/128964c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/128964c0