Marriage and parentage, education, and kindred subjects / O.S. Fowler.

  • Orson S. Fowler
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Marriage and parentage, education, and kindred subjects / O.S. Fowler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/610 page 9
    Assuming that man knows, what points are especially to be attended to m examining” iiis knowledge ?—It is necessary, above all things to determine accurately that which lie can and that which he cannot know ;_to specify the various sorts of knowledge, and indicate the condition under which each may be acquired ; to establish the natural la ws, or the regularity with which every thing happens ; and thus to found, on a sure basis, the happiness of indi- viduals and of the human kind. What can man know ?—Strict reason demonstrates that he only knows his individual identity and the modified conditions of his self. Plain sense says that man knows (1) his existence, many parts which constitute his frame, many internal functions, caM^d feelings and intellect, or affective and intellectual faculties ; (2) that he knows a great number of external objects, as existences ; (3) that he knows their physical qualities, their mutual relations, and their relations with himself and with others ; (4) that he knows regularity, or the laws of all the knowledge he possesses. How may the external objects of human knowledge be divided ?—Into Matters and Spirits, or Souls.' What, according to the ancients, are the characteristics of matter, and of spirit or soul ?—Matter was characterised by its inertia, and certain qualities styled physical, such as form, size, weight, and impenetrability. Spirit, on the other hand, was distinguished by its formlessness, and its power of conferring activity on matter. Have opinions on these points been constant ?—No. Mankind has not at all times recognised the same number either of elementary matters or spirits. Simple substances were long confined to four, but modern chemistry, in its pro- gress, has augmented the quantity prodigiously. Under what forms does matter occur in the world ?—It exists in the solid, liquid, and aeriform or imponderable state. Are not researches upon matter in some of these conditions more especially difficult ?—Researches upon imponderable bodies are particularly so, for matter in this state is intimately connected with the personified principles which act in the human body, and here observation and induction, the sole guides to certainty abandon the investigator. What difference is there between matter generally and an organised body P— Matter may (1) be simple : an organised body is always compounded. (2) Matter has not been engendered, and has no generative power : organised bodies are products of previously existing individuals, their like. (3) Matter of different kinds, however mingled, chemically or mechanically, can never exhibit vital functions after the manner of an organised body. What are the points of resemblance between matter generally and organised bodies, according to the ancients ?—(1) Inertia, and (2) each being actuated by immaterial causes or spirits. To what has the organising power of the body been ascribed by the old philosophers, and with what degree of accuracy ?—Tq the soul or spirit. But this conclusion is not probably'correct. A beautiful body follows not neces- sanly as a consequence of a superior soul, and many very plain persons attach ^pinion, and gain our confidence, by their amiable tempers and general M hat is it impossible for man to know ?—It is certain that he can know not ing in itself neither the essence of his own nature nor that of external 0 ' . e se“ the conscious man is nothing more to him than an object o observation. 1* urther, man cannot know either the beginning or the end or ^t is. He can only observe what is, the conditions under which it is, and the regularity with which the phenomena happen. His knowledge is merely phenomenal. • fn what way can man know or acquire knowledge ?—Only by observing and nducmg, for reflection will no more reveal to man his own nature than it will “ information of external objects, with their physical qualities and their s. he study of man by the d priori method of reflection has retarded
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