Thoughts thai do Often lie tOO deep lor teals."
Philosophy is, like death, one of the few things that we
moral-, aid j ovi rnm< in : and the-e. indeed, spreading can by no* means avoid, whether we welcome or reject
overall |. pe, imperceptibly took possession of public it: whether we regard the irresistible tendencies of our
"I '"• A* >n"n ;,s the sale was sufficient to pay the intellectual constitution to speculative inquiry, or the
expenses, inferior editions were printedand givenaway, latent regularity, order, and law controlling all things or sold at a very low price circulating libraries of them that fall under 'our notice, when they develop then- were formed, and reading societies instituted. While -elves in accordance with their intrinsic nature (see ^ir they constantly disowned these productions before the W. Hamilton. Metaphysics, lect iv, p. !•'•: Ueberweg, world, they contrived to give them a false celebrity Hist, of Philosophy, vol. i, § 1, p through i hen- confidential agents and correspondents, There is no longer reason to dread the rariu ol phi-
wnpwere themselves always trusted with the entire losophy; thee ha- been , scasion for Buch alarm for
sccni. By degrees they got possession of most of the more than two thousand years; the terror has been
reviews and periodical publications; established a gen- produced by the r indance ol what .lain.- this name.
eral intercourse, by means of hawkers and pedlers,with ["here are philosophers of all -on-, who deal with all
PHILOSOPHY
125
PHILOSOPHY
varieties of subjects. There is mental, moral, political, economical, and natural philosophy; there is the phi- losophy of religion, the philosophy of enthusiasm, and the philosophy of insanity; the philosophy of logic, the philosophy of rhetoric, the philosophy of language, and the philosophy of grammar; there is the philoso- phy of history, the philosophy of law, the philosophy of the inductive sciences; there is the philosophy of colors, the philosophy of music, the philosophy of dress, the philosophy of manners, the philosophy of cookery, the philosophy of building, etc. All imag- inable topics reveal an aptitude for philosophic treat- ment, and pretend to furnish a basis for some special philosophy. It would occasion no surprise to encounter a philosophy of jack-straws, and other infantile amuse- ments. There must be some legitimacy, however slight, in these numerous pretensions, some semblance of truth in such easy assumption, or such professions would not continue to be repeated and tolerated. There must be some common element, some cord of similitude, uniting together under one category these multitudinous forms of inquiry, and the unnumbered inquiries which are left unnamed.
Scope of the Term. — The word philosophy first appears in the Father of History. It is applied by Croesus to Solon, in his travels in search of knowledge and in- formation, and is used as almost equivalent to theory, which in the context means scarcely anything more than sight-seeing or observation (Herodot. i, 30). It next appears in Thucydides. Pericles speaks of the Athenians as "philosophizing without effeminacy," where the term seems to denote the acquisition of in- formation and culture (Thuc. ii, 40). The origination of the word is ascribed to Pythagoras in a familiar an- ecdote, which reports that, being asked by Leon, the chief of Phlius, " What were philosophers?" he replied, with a happy allusion to the concourse at the Olympic Games, that " they were those who diligently observed the nature of things," calling themselves "students, or lovers of wisdom," and occupied with •' the contemplation and knowledge of things" (Cicero, Tusc. Qn. v, 3, 9). He is supposed to have thus repudiated the designation of " wise man," or " sophister," previously in vogue, and to have modestly proposed in its stead the appellation of " philosopher," a lover of wisdom. The authenticity of the anecdote has been gravely questioned ; and the des- ignation, alleged to have been rejected in this manner, continued in habitual use, with no invidious sense, and was applied to Socrates and the chiefs of the Socratic schools (Grote, Hist, of Greece, pt. ii, vol. viii, ch. lxvii, p. 350). To the numerous passages cited by Grote may lie adilcd Androtion, Fr. 39 ; Phan. Eretrius, Fr. 21; and Synesii Dio, apud Dion Chrysostom,ii,329,ed. Teubner). The censures of the Sophists by Plato and Aristotle, the character of the Socratic teaching, and the almost ex- clusively inquisitive and indeterminate complexion of the Platonic speculation, appear to have given currency to the designation of philosophy, as a more modest and inconclusive appellative than " sophia," or wisdom.
Originally, then, philosophy imported only the loving pursuit of knowledge, without any implication of actual attainment; but it soon acquired a more positive and distinct acceptation. In the Republic Plato defines phi- losophy as " the circuit, or beating about, of the soul in its ascending progress towards real existence ;" and de- clares those to be philosophers "who embrace the really existent," and " who are able to apprehend the eternal and unchanging." In the Euthydemus he goes farther, and describes philosophy as " the acquisition of true knowledge." In the definitions ascribed to Plato, which, though not his, may preserve the tradition of his teach- ing, it is only " the desire of the knowledge of eternal existences." Xenophon rarely employs the term, but applies "sophia" to the Socratic knowledge. In one passage where he uses it it signifies the knowledge and practice of the duties of life {Mem. iv, 2, p. 23).