Philosophy, in its development, is a series of errone- ous and conflicting positions. One extreme provokes another extreme ; but the conception of first principles, and the range of deductions from them, become en- larged and cleared with the progress and succession of errors, although the full and precise truth mav never be reached.
The truth which seems to be involved in Realism is this: Universals, genera, species, represent the perma- nent forms of the intelligible creation. They attest a settled and regular order in the sensible universe. They reveal a preordained, or predetermined, plan in the sev- eral classes of existence; an enduring truth; an abiding uniformity in the midst of individual deviations and transitory manifestations; a design habitually fulfilled; types which subsist, though actualities vanish. A part, |
at least, of the error of Realism — for neither its whole truth nor its whole error can be distinctly grasped and perspicuously expressed— consisted in presenting these important conclusions in an exaggerated form, so that they contradicted the partial truth equally involved in Nominalism : that individuals have a real as well as an actual existence, and that the generic and specific terms which are habitually employed, and are indispensable in language, are modes of classifying our perceptions and conceptions, and are used altogether independently of any ulterior suggestions which may be implicated in them.
The Nominalist denied a metaphysical truth because it was not embraced within the sphere of his logical re- quirements. The Realist assailed the logical truth be- cause it failed to embrace an ontological explanation, and appeared to be at variance with it.
Bitter contradictions and acrimonious hostilities nec- essarily resulted from the antagonism, in consequence of the inevitable association of the conflicting doctrines with adverse parties and interests in theology, in Church and in State.
III. Literature. — The historians of philosophy, who embrace the philosophy of the Middle Ages, necessarily pay much attention to Realism and Nominalism. More special sources of information are, Caraman, Hist, des Revolutions de la Philosophic en France; Baumgarten Crusius, De Vero Scholast. Real, et Nominal. Discrimine (Jena, 1821); Cousin, Fragmens Philosophiques (Paris, 1840); id. Introd. aux O'Aivres Inedits d' 'Abelard ; Exner, Nominalismus und Realismus (Prague, 1842); Kohler, Realismus und Nominalismus in ihrem Einftuss avf die dogmat. Syst. des Mittelalt. (Gotha, 1857); Haure'au, Philosophic Scolastique (Paris, 1858); Cupely, Esprit de In Philosophie Scolastique (ibid. 1868). Much valuable suggestion may also be obtained from Re'musat, Abe- lard (ibid. 1845, 2 vols.); id. St. Anselme (ibid. 1853). To these may be added, Emerson, Realism and Nomi- nalism. (G. F. II.)
Reanointers is the name of a Russian sect, which dates from about the year 1770. They do not rebaptize those who join them from the Greek Church, but they insist upon their having the chrism again administered to them. They are said to be especially numerous in Moscow. See Russian Sects.
Reaping p2|5, katsar', to cut off; 3-tpiZw). Reap- ing in Palestine was usually done by the sickle, to which reference is occasionally made in Scripture. See Sickle. But there can be little doubt that the modern practice of pulling up by the roots, instead of cutting the corn, also prevailed to a considerable extent in ancient times. The corn seldom yields so much straw as in this coun- try, and pulling is resorted to in order to obtain a larger supply of fodder. Maundrell thus describes the practice as he noticed it in 1697: "All that occurred to us new in these days' travel was a particular way used by the country people in gathering their corn, it being now harvest-time. They plucked it up by handfuls from the roots, leaving the most fruitful fields as naked as if nothing had ever grown on them. This was their prac- tice in all the places of the East that I have seen ; and
Ancient Egyptians Reaping.
REASON
944
REASON
the reason is thai they may lose none of their straw. which is generally very short, and necessary lor the sustenance of their cattle, no hay being here made. I mention this." be adds, "because il Beems to give light to thai expression of the Psalms (exxix, 6), 'which witheretfa before it be plucked up,' where there seems to be a manifest allusion to the custom." This un- doubtedly is the correct meaning of the expression; and the real allusion is losl sighl of by the rendering in the A.V.,"before it growetb up." Ii grows, hut withers he plucking-time comes an emblem of the premature decay and fruitlessness of the wicked. See
Ai.KK I 1.1 I BE.
Reason denotes thai function of our intelligence which has reference to the attainment of a particular class of truths. We know a greal many things by im- mediate or actual experience. Our senses tell us that we are thirsty, that we bear a sound, thai we are af- fected by light. These facts are truths of Bense or of immediate knowledge, and do not involve the reason. Reason comes into play when we know a thing not immediately, but by some indirect process; as when. from seeing a river unusually swollen, we believe thai there have been heavy rains at its sources. Here the mere sense tells us only that the river is high. It is by certain transitions of thought, or by the employ- ment of our thinking powers, thai we come to know the other circumstance that in a remote part of the coun- try there have been heavy rains.