ism CHAPTER VI THE CARDINAL PRINCIPLE OF IDEALISM1 1. "THE constant presupposition is, that a spiritual life which is a unified whole is at work in the depths of our soul." These words, written by Rudolph The General Meaning of Eucken,2 admirably express the message of idealModern Ideal- ism to modern times. Idealism is a form of spiritualism in which man, the finite individual, is regarded as a microcosmic representation of God, the Absolute Individual. Man's spiritual nature is a revelation of the principle of reality, and his ideals an intimation of the perfect and eternal reality. So that, but for his limitations, man would be God; and taken together with the balance of spiritual life, which compensates for these limitations, he is God. But a characterization of idealism in terms so general as these, while it helps to define its place among religious and ethical motives, throws little light upon its technical philosophical meaning. To understand this it is necessary to examine its method and proofs. And we then discover that idealism rests fundamentally upon a theory of knowledge. The supremacy of spirit is argued from the theory of the priority of the knowing consciousness itself, over all with which it has to do. All things, it is contended, are primarily 'objects'; and to be object means necessarily to be 'for' something, to be in some sense the expression or creation of a 'subject.' The so-called 'external world' being in this manner reduced to knowledge, and knowledge being construed as spiritual, the supremacy of spirit is 'Reprinted, with additions and alterations, from an article published in Mind, N. S., Vol. XIX, 1910. The Life of the Spirit, trans. by F. L. Pogson, p. 100. established. This is the reply of idealism to naturalism; and the justification which idealism affords to the religious belief that the world at large is governed in the interest of goodness. The assertion of the priority of the cognitive consciousness, the assertion that being is dependent on the knowing of it, may, then, fairly be regarded as the cardinal principle of idealism. Only in the light of this principle can either the applications of idealism, or its own inner dialectical movement, be comprehended. I shall attempt in the present chapter to throw this principle into bold relief, by examining its origin, and formulating its fundamental proofs. Platonic Idealism, or Teleological Rationalism § 2. Modern idealism, defined in the light of this principle, may be clearly distinguished from ancient idealism, or Platonism. Platonism is primarily the culmination of a tendency which manifested itself among all the pre-Socratics: a tendency of which the central motive was the assertion of the superiority of systematic or well-grounded knowledge to mere opinion. Thus Parmenides distinguished between "the unshaken heart of persuasive truth," and "the opinions of mortals in which is no true belief at all." Heraclitus remarked that the truth differed from opinion in being one and universal. "Though wisdom is common, yet the many live as if they had a wisdom of their own"; just as "the waking have one and the same world, but the sleeping turn aside each into a world of his own." 1 Similarly with Plato, philosophy is primarily a means of escape from the relativity and conflict of opinion. The philosopher is "he who has magnificence of mind and is the spectator of all time and all existence"; who "will not rest in the multiplicity of individuals which is an appearance only, but will go on the keen edge will not be blunted, neither the force of his desire abate until he have attained the knowledge of the true nature of every essence by a kindred power in the soul." True knowledge is marked by 1 Burnet's Early Greek Philosophy, pp. 184, 140. |