William Osler's philosophy / by Ludwig Edelstein.

  • Ludwig Edelstein
Date:
1946
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: William Osler's philosophy / by Ludwig Edelstein. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    well call such a gospel a new humanism, although Osier gives its quintes¬ sence in the words of the Greek philosopher Prodicus, “ that which benefits human life is God.” When he selected this phrase he hardly failed to remember that other pragmatic humanism, for which Protagoras’ state¬ ment, “ man is the measure of all things,” was the watchword.28 Yet whether this socialism be Christian or scientific or humanistic, the opti¬ mistic ring of Osier’s assertions must not deceive one into believing that he hoped for more than an improvement of external conditions, of material welfare, or that he would admit now that the civitas Dei could ever be realized in the regnum hominis. In the comedies and tragedies of life the immutable human nature of men of today reacts very much as in the dawn of science, though with a widening of knowledge “ the lights and shadows of the landscape have shifted, and the picture is brighter.” 29 James, too at the end of his life trusted in the socialism of the future, but he would hardly have retracted the statement which he made in 1897 in a book from which Osier quoted three years after he had given his final verdict on man’s fate just referred to: “ Society has, with all this, undoubtedly got to pass toward some newer and better equilibrium, and the distribution of wealth has doubtless slowly got to change: such changes have always happened, and will happen to the end of time. But if, after all that I have said, any of you expect that they will make any genuine vital difference on a large scale, to the lives of our descendants, you will have missed the significance of my entire lecture. The solid meaning of life is always the same eternal thing,—the marriage, namely, of some unhabitual ideal, however special, with some fidelity, courage, and endurance; with some man’s or woman’s pain.—And, whatever or wherever life may be, there will always be the chance for that marriage to take place.” 30 Osier never gave assent to those who hold that the course of the things in this world, of human happiness or unhappiness, is determined by institutions rather than by man’s character and will. As James had ex¬ pressed it: “ No outward changes of condition in life can keep the night¬ ingale of its eternal meaning from singing in all sorts of different men’s hearts. That is the main fact to remember.” 31 Perhaps it was this 28 Student Life, 70; cf. Cushing, II, 2281, 2201 For Schiller, Humanism, XVII, 31. Osier owned a copy of Schiller’s article on Plato oy Protagoras? published in 1908 (Bibliotheca Osleriana, no. 226). 29 Student Life, 69. 30 Talks to Teachers, 2981 For James’ increasing interest in socialism after 1897, cf. M. Curti, The Social Ideas of American Educators, 1935, 438 ff. 31 Talks to Teachers, 301.
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