PREFACE
This work must be regarded as a new edition rather than
as a mere translation of my book, La Reazione idealistica contro la scienza,
published in Italy in 1912, since I
have subjected the whole of it to a process of revision
with a view to improving it and adapting it to
the British public. In the concluding chapter I have
gathered together the constructive portions formerly
scattered through the whole book, so as to give greater
prominence to my personal point of view, which is a
form of spiritualistic realism, and to make that view
clearer. The outlines of a spiritualistic conception of
the world sketched therein have already formed the
subject-matter of three addresses given by me in the
Philosophical Library of Palermo, founded by Dr.
Giuseppe Amato Pojero, a true apostle of philosophy, the
study of which he strives to further by both precept and
practice. The line of thought adopted by me — that of
the school of Francesco de Sarlo and his review,
La Cultura filosofica, defends the rights of the scientific method
and of natural reality against the facile denials of the
neo-Hegelians. Idealism, which came into vogue in
Italy after the decline of positivism, now appears to be
on the wane, and the abuse of the dialectic method has
resulted in such a confusion of ideas in mental sciences
that Croce himself recently lifted his voice in protest
against these exaggerations. It is now time to return
