Mathematical philosophy, a study of fate and freedom; lectures for educated laymen, by Cassius J. Keyser.

TRUTH AND THE CRITIC'S ART 137
muse of thought. When I violate it, I am erratic; if I
hate it, I am licentious or dissolute; if I love it, I am free
— the highest blessing the austerest muse can give.
The remainder of this lecture consists of a brief discussion of a very much neglected subject of very great
importance; and its importance is not only of the theoretical kind but, as I trust you will be able to see, of the
most effectively practical kind also; practical, that is, for
such as have the talent and training,-the gumption and
discipline,-to employ effectively the most delicate and
most powerful of intellectual instruments. I may call the
subject
The Rôle of Postulate Systems and Doctrinal Functions in the Structure and Criticism of Thought.-Here,
as generally in these lectures, I use the term Thought in a
very comprehensive sense: not in a sense so inclusive as it
has sometimes-in William James's Principles of Psychology, for example, where it often signifies or covers
"mental states at large, irrespective of their kind"; but
rather in the sense it has in Theodore Merz's great History
of European Thought in the Nineteenth Century where the
term embraces both what we ordinarily mean by "Science"
and what by "Philosophy"; in other words, I am using
the term Thought to signify that sort of discourse which
deliberately owns allegiance, even though it often fails in
loyalty, to the authority of Logic. The subject is, you
see, immense, penetrating all the sciences and all the philosophies, natural, or social, or speculative-all fields, in
short, where men have sought by means of reasoned discourse to gain or to give wisdom and light for the guidance of humankind. To treat it as it deserves to be
treated,-both in full generality and in detail,-would
require the writing of a large volume. Since every doc