An examination and popular exposition of the hylo-idealistic philosophy / by William Bell M'Taggart.

  • M'Taggart, William Bell, -1919.
Date:
[1884?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An examination and popular exposition of the hylo-idealistic philosophy / by William Bell M'Taggart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    24/92 (page 16)
    am satisfied that the general reader will not have the faintest notion of what it is all about, and most certainly will not be encouraged to enter upon the thorny path of metaphysics, and, therefore, will never arrive at the light of the glorious day to which we hope by and by to lead him. If, on the other hand, I cut down his paragraphs and paraphrase his language, then I lay myself open to the charges of misquotation and of failure to represent his real meaning. However, I must do my best; and if on any occasion I do fall into error of the latter description, Dr. Lewins will, I hope, accept my assurance that such failure will arise from my own misapprehension, and not from any willful misrepresentation. We have, in the first portion of our inquiry, considered briefly the two opposing theses of Materialism and Idealism, and I have pointed out that it will become evident that Hylo-Idealism is really the scientific union of all that is best in both trains of thought. Bearing this in mind, let us turn to Dr. Lewins himself, not only for confirmation of this statement, but also in order to learn how this union is accomplished. In What is Religion t Appendix II., he writes :— ^ By Hylo-Idealism I mean nothing else than a less ambiguous and self-explanatory form of the term Psycho- logy, [which term] ... is the accredited creed of all rational human knowledge, in contradistinction to the occult and morbid mysticism of ontology or metaphysics. Psychology is defined by Sir W. Hamilton as “the science conversant with the phenomena of the mind, or conscious subject, or self, or ego f’ ontology, by Littre, as . . . “ first theory of being; science of being—that is, gene- rally, the synonym of metaphysics.’’ . . . Psychology is thus relative and phenomenal, the doctrine of life . . . and human knowledge, beginning and ending as anthropo- morphosis, and automorphosis, which is quite one with Hylo-Idealism, the notional or cerebral theory of mind