Philosophy and Specific Problems [pp. 208-232]

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PHILOSOPHY AND ITS SPECIFIC PROBLEMS.
its substance not a new one, but as old as all comprehensive
human thought. It is, of course, primarily to promote the
knowledge that philosophy, as a special science, exists and has
peculiar problems, and then to make clearly known what these
problems are, of what solution they have been found capable,
and what must yet be done in order to render the solution, in
form and in detail of demonstration, still more perfect.
Philosophy is, (I) in form, knowledge of the universal. (2) In
substance it is knowledge of the universal or absolute nature
of experimental reality. In this regard no more perfect definition can be given of philosophy than that furnished by Aristotle,
who terms it the science of being as such. The establishment of
such a science is the cardinal problem of philosophy. (3) The
key or way to the solution of the problem is found in the science of knowledge. Reality, Being, is an object of knowledge.
It exists for us, it can be conceived by us, in no other fashion.
The science of knowing is but the obverse of the science of being. The two sciences are inseparable. This is concretely
illustrated in all " systems" of philosophy, as also, in its measure,
in the larger generalizations of physical science itself. The science of being and the science of knowing, or the former science
through the latter-these phrases express in the most general
manner the leading specific problems of philosophy. (4) There
exist, further, for philosophy as many minor problems as there
are different departments or aspects of the whole field of experimental reality. While one nature permeates, constitutes, or
underlies all of these departments-for Being is one-yet they
are separated by characteristic differences, and their names are
such as the following: Nature, Mind, History, Society, The
State, Art, Religion. And in all of these philosophy must search
for and find the illustration and confirmation of its universal
principle, while also, on the other hand, it must with the lilght
of this principle be able to throw light upon, or explain and
render comprehensible, all of them.
The four points now enumerated are all illustrated, pro
forma, in the "philosophy" of those who yield to the demand
mentioned at the beginning of this article, and seek to make
physical science the ultimate in knowledge. This is the same
as to say that they are all illustrated in their way in the funda
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