Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/846

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DEVAS


762


DEVAS


Ego revealed as an independent self-conscious person. Further reflection shows the self to be conditioned by the non-self (nature), while both self and naturesup- pose a supreme, free cause. Hence the first trilogy — Man, Nature, God. The evolution of the Ego is ef- fected by the interaction of Nature and God, and this results in a triple life. The first element and stage proceeds from nature (the body), the second from God (the spirit), the third, the intermediating ground, is the soul. Hence the second trilogy constituting man's nature and stages of his development — Body, Soul, Sjjirit. The attributes of the spirit are being, know- ing, willing. But the unity of these attributes is merely subjective; personality is only potentially in them. The spirit comes to actual personality through interaction with nature. The vital process, consisting in the interplay of nature (i. e. the necessitated factor) with the personal (i. e. the free) element, unfolds in three stages: as movement inward from without (thought, Denken); as outward from with'n (power, Kiinnen); and as proceeding from both together (doing, acting. Tun.). Hence the trilogy of human faculty: Thought, Power, Action; and the departments of the philosophical system: science of thought {Denk- lehre), of art {Kunstlehre) , and of conduct (moral philosophy). Outside these departments lie psychol- ogy and the philosophy of nature, while on the cir- cumference extend jurisprudence and the philosophy of religion. Sensation and imagination are insuffi- cient to explain the genesis of thought, the concept. The representation wherein the external and the in- ternal factors unite is but one basis of conscious knowledge, the concept; the other lies in the free per- sonal element, inward intuition, the idea. Idea, therefore, and representation must interact in order to engender the concept. Hence cognition is the prod- uct of the two opposing factors, representation and idea, between which it intermediates as concept. But just as the antinomy between the free personality and the necessitated outer nature urges to conciliation in action, so the antinomy between subject and object presses tov-'ards unification in thought. Now all in- termediated unity comes of likeness, unlikeness, and the blending unity. Likeness lies in the subject; un- likeness in the object; unity in the interrelation of these two. From the first we get the principle of identity; from the second that of sequence, or reason; from the third that of disjunction, or exclusion. Hence the final trilogy of the laws of thought.

Each of the foregoing " ternalities " is developed with considerable insight, but with much artificiality and still more mistiness, which is felt at once in the distinction he makes between soul and spirit, and in the genesis of personality by the play of the necessi- tating nature-object on the free spirit. The similarity to the Hegelian idealism, if not the borrowed influence of that elusive system, is at once apparent.

Deutinger possessed a richly-endowed mind, a soar- ing, though somewhat exuberant, imagination, an ar- lient love of the beautiful in nature and in art, and a comprehensive, though not always sufficiently critical, intelligence. He failed in his main purpose not be- cause he lacked philosophical power or energy, but chiefly because he broke with philosophical tradition to go his own way. He is said to have boasted that " he had builded a house of his own in philosophy, re- gardless of the form and material employed by other builders". "This is all very fine", observes Stockl, " and it may well be that Deutinger wanted to do per- fect justice to the faith which he strove to conciliate with a modernised philosophy. But just because he wrought by himself independently of the claims of the Christian philosophical tradition, "his .system manifests the characteristic of all other modern systems con- structed in a like spirit. Subjectivism predominates throughout, and therefore it enjoyed but an cjjhem- eral existence." As a critic, Deutinger was brilliant


and prolific. His style, though somewhat luxuriant, is marked by a sparkling wit and sarcasm that is speci- ally captivating with the young. His works com- prise: "Grundliniender positiven Philosophic" (Rat- isbon, 1843-49); "Geschichte der griechischen Philos- ophic" (Ratisbon, 1852-53); "Bilder des Geistes in Kunst u. Natur" (Augsburg, 1846-49, and Ratis- bon, 1851); "Grundriss der Moralphilosophie " (Dil- lingen, 1847); "Grundriss derLogik" (Dillingen, 1848); "Wallfahrt nach Oberammergau " (Munich, 1851); "Geist der christl. Ueberlieferung" (Augsburg, 1850); " Das Princip der neueren Philosophic und die christl. Wissenschaft" (Ratisbon, 1857); " Ueber das Verhalt- niss der Poesie zur Religion" (Augsburg, 1861); Das Reich Gottes nach dem Apostel Joannes" (Freiburg, 1862); "Renan und das Wunder" (Munich, 1864). Among his posthumous works, edited by his pupil Lorenz Kastner, are : " Der gegenwartige Zustand der deutschen Philosophic"; a third volume of "Das Reich Gottes" (Ratisbon, 1867); and an additional part to the "Bilder des Geistes" (Munich, 1866).

Kastner, Deutingers Leben und Schriften (Munich, 1875); Stockl, Geschichte dernetieren Philosophie (Mainz, 1883); Neu- DECKER, Das Grundproblem der Erkenntnissfheorie (Nordlingen, 1881), favourable to Deutinger; on the opposite side, Becker. Die Philosophie Deutingers in ihrem Verhdltniss zur Scholastik und Philosophie der Neuzeit in the Katholik (1866) I, 693; II, 156; ScHMiD in Kirchenlexikon, s. v.; Sattel, Deutingers Gotleslehre (Ratisbon, 1905).

F. P. Siegfried.

Devas, Charles Stanton, political economist, b. at Woodside, Old Windsor, England, of Protestant parents, 26 August, 1848; d. 6 November, 1906. He was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, where he took a first class in the honours School of Law and History. Before proceeding to the univer- sity he had been received into the Catholic Church and his subsequent career was entirely devoted to the service of religion. By treating political economy, both in books and lectures, from a definitely Catholic standpoint, he was one of the earliest to oppose the current teaching, which declined to consider history or ethics as relevant to thesubject.

"The GroundW'Ork of Economics" (1883), the first work published in his own name (for the translation into English of Hergenrother's "Church and State" was anonymous), attracted considerable attention and was translated into German in 1896 by Dr. Walter Kampfe. The "Manual of Political Economy" (Stonyhurst Philosophical Series), published in 1892 (third edition, 1907), has achieved a more permanent success, and is now a recognized textbook in English- speaking schools and seminaries. In 1886 he pub- lished "Studies in Family Life", an historical inquiry into this branch of economics, with a view to justify the contention that Christianity is an essential factor in the problem of social well-being. This book was translated into German in 1887 by Paul Maria Baum- garten. In 1895 he published anonymously in Lon- don a poetical version of the story of Sintram.

Besides his books he wrote frequently for "The Dublin Review", "The Month", and other periodicals, both English and .\merican, and read papers before The British Association, The Manchester Statistical Society, The Catholic Truth Society, and other bodies. A considerable number of his later essays and lectures dealing with modern social problems have been issued by The Catholic Truth Society in pamphlet form, and his premature death w:vs a severe lo-ss to English Catholics in the confusion of the controversies raised by Socialism. His last, and perhaps his most impor- tant, book, "The Key to the World's Progress", was published in 1906. This, unlike his earlier works, is directly apologetic, being an elaborate defence of the Catholic Church written with a view to meeting the difficulties and questionings of the twentieth century. A popular edition has been i.ssued since his death. .

In 1874 he married Eliza Mary Katherine, the