Initiation into Philosophy

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Initiation into Philosophy

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Title: Initiation into Philosophy
Author: Emile Faguet
Release Date: November, 2005 [EBook #9304] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on September 19, 2003]
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Language: English
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INITIATION INTO PHILOSOPHY
by émile Faguet of the French Academy
Author of "The Cult Of Incompetence," "Initiation Into Literature," etc.

Translated from the French by Sir Homer Gordon, Bart.
1914

PREFACE
This volume, as indicated by the title, is designed to show the way to the beginner, to satisfy and more especially to excite his initial curiosity. It affords an adequate idea of the march of facts and of ideas. The reader is led, somewhat rapidly, from the remote origins to the most recent efforts of the human mind.
It should be a convenient repertory to which the mind may revert in order to see broadly the general opinion of an epoch--and what connected it with those that followed or preceded it. It aims above all at being a frame in which can conveniently be inscribed, in the course of further studies, new conceptions more detailed and more thoroughly examined.
It will have fulfilled its design should it incite to research and meditation, and if it prepares for them correctly.
E. FAGUET.

CONTENTS


PART I ANTIQUITY


CHAPTER I
BEFORE SOCRATES
Philosophical Interpreters of the Universe, of the Creation and Constitution of the World.


CHAPTER II
THE SOPHISTS
Logicians and Professors of Logic, and of the Analysis of Ideas, and of Discussion.


CHAPTER III
SOCRATES
Philosophy Entirely Reduced to Morality, and Morality Considered as the End of all Intellectual Activity.


CHAPTER IV
PLATO
Plato, like Socrates, is Pre-eminently a Moralist, but he Reverts to General Consideration of the Universe, and Deals with Politics and Legislation.


CHAPTER V
ARISTOTLE
A Man of Encyclopaedic Learning; as Philosopher, more especially Moralist and Logician.


CHAPTER VI
VARIOUS SCHOOLS
The Development in Various Schools of the General Ideas of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.


CHAPTER VII
EPICUREANISM
Epicureanism Believes that the Duty of Man is to seek Happiness, and that Happiness Consists in Wisdom.


CHAPTER VIII
STOICISM
The Passions are Diseases which can and must be Extirpated.


CHAPTER IX
ECLECTICS AND SCEPTICS
Philosophers who Wished to Belong to No School. Philosophers who Decried All Schools and All Doctrines.


CHAPTER X
NEOPLATONISM
Reversion to Metaphysics. Imaginative Metaphysicians after the Manner of Plato, but in Excess.


CHAPTER XI
CHRISTIANITY
Philosophic Ideas which Christianity Welcomed, Adopted, or Created; How it must Give a Fresh Aspect to All Philosophy, even that Foreign to Itself.


PART II IN THE MIDDLE AGES


CHAPTER I
FROM THE FIFTH CENTURY TO THE THIRTEENTH
Philosophy is only an Interpreter of Dogma. When it is Declared Contrary to Dogma by the Authority of Religion, it is a Heresy. Orthodox and Heterodox Interpretations. Some Independent Philosophers.


CHAPTER II
THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY
Influence of Aristotle. His Adoption by the Church. Religious Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas.


CHAPTER III
THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES
Decadence of Scholasticism. Forebodings of the Coming Era. Great Moralists. The Kabbala. Sorcery.


CHAPTER IV
THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
It Is Fairly Accurate to Consider that from the Point of View of Philosophy, the Middle Ages Lasted until Descartes. Free-thinkers More or Less Disguised. Partisans of Reason Apart from Faith, of Observation, and of Experiment.


PART III MODERN TIMES


CHAPTER I
THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
Descartes. Cartesianism.


CHAPTER II
CARTESIANS
All the Seventeenth Century was under the Influence of Descartes. Port-Royal, Bossuet, Fénelon, Malebranche, Spinoza, Leibnitz.


CHAPTER III
THE ENGLISH PHILOSOPHERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
Locke: His Ideas on Human Liberty, Morality, General Politics, and Religious Politics.


CHAPTER IV
THE ENGLISH PHILOSOPHERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Berkeley: A Highly Idealist Philosophy which Regarded Matter as Non-existent. David Hume: Sceptical Philosophy. The Scottish School: Philosophy of Common Sense.


CHAPTER V
THE FRENCH PHILOSOPHERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY
Voltaire a Disciple of Locke. Rousseau a Free-thinking Christian, but deeply Imbued with Religious Sentiments. Diderot a Capricious Materialist. D'Holbach and Helvetius Avowed Materialists. Condillac a Philosopher of Sensations.


CHAPTER VI
KANT
Kant Reconstructed all Philosophy by Supporting it on Morality.


CHAPTER VII
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: GERMANY
The Great Reconstructors of the World, Analogous to the First Philosophers of Antiquity. Great General Systems, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, etc.


CHAPTER VIII
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY: ENGLAND
The Doctrines