THE SPIRIT OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY.
LECTURE I.
GENERAL INTRODUCTION.
In the following course of lectures I shall try to
suggest, in a fashion suited to the general student, something
about the men, the problems, and the issues that seem to
me most interesting in a limited, but highly representative
portion of the history of modern philosophy. I undertake
this work with a keen sense of the limitations of my
time and my powers. I plead as excuse only my desire
to interest some of my fellow-students in the great
concerns of philosophy.
I.
The assumption upon which these lectures are based is one that I may as well set forth at the very beginning. It is the assumption that Philosophy, in the proper sense of the term, is not a presumptuous effort to explain the mysteries of the world by means of any superhuman insight or extraordinary cunning, but has its origin and value in an attempt to give a reasonable account of our own personal attitude towards the more serious business of life. You philosophize when you reflect critically upon what you are actually doing in your world. What you are doing is of course, in the first place, living. And life involves passions, faiths, doubts, and courage. The critical inquiry into what all these things mean and imply is philosophy. We have our faith in life; we want
