THE TORCH OF REASON, SILVERTON, OREGON, MAY 31, 1900.
F o r th e T om b of Reason.
5
n J n Hn illn en,*‘m je r? 0'' Sir w il' ,he quotation made by Mr. Under- 1 aland the world in which weT7e
-
■“
* » .......... ; ? » » 'i> -I--. -
grand galaxy of honor ¿ the wor , d as HVSI a SITV is able to know the activity or experience of this
BY B. F . U N D ER W O O D .
human race the names of those who, an<l has Earned to know it, is the i'.ubj^ ’ “u t ' he ".Y '1' ar?und u"-is
i™ v.P? i o agi
° nly P°Psible world <" ">«»• a»d ulated resulto>'of man ' s experienced
Anybody J who attempts
»n
J j r"8an.d
n * 4 have
» ri8lo‘!edown
,
\ to studv J lo
Kant and
Comte,
done
so the basis of all of his life, present This is the ground of our faith.hope
philosophy
without
understanding
much to illustrate and to make ever
9
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a
.xrei
• - i «
r n r .- , •. . 9
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m ’e e v e r and
and future.
future. A
A more
more fruitful,
fruitful, irs- and
aod m-cHorism.
m-cHorism.
edge” with its profound im plies-
of-iiw W ocfA iB . Si,fee the £ " l“ " ' ,
’“ « " • ’ « " 8 chnpter, «-
. » "J " '" * - at man’s explan«
Ilona, will land in the ditch.
‘,me nf * “"» - Hamilton, Mill, Mr- Underwood intimates, has nev-
£ than hU ow can never be
S n e ' n l re
__ i p p b~
boon
____j . "hn-
_ i ' m u ,c iu«u ms ow
Human knowledge is relative, X
h r o J " in v U v
" m .,on ‘ban . *u_
the giaud
Perception and resultant conception an or those Who have had any lead man cenclusions which fellow from subjective synthesis and nan n t ?
t ^ g h ^ v e ^ ^ ^ X i ^
“Relativity of Knowledge”, er truly be mot. untU he ca. learn
are products of two factors—con­
made stronger
and
more irrefrag- theF °f lts lnev ¡table consequences to think beyond relations, as a bird
sciousness and the objective
v v u » v i reality.
r a n í y,
o
----------
will appear in another column.
^ould fly without wings or air. Our
What either is “in ilself” we do abl?.tha conviction that this philo-
science
is our human reading and
'T'u
x
sophical
doctrine
is
a
law
of
science
We
continue
the
quotation
thus:
not and can not know. The two underlying all human knowledge,
co-ordination of phenomena as they
factors constitute a synthesis which thought and effort.
“ The
of Scientific
Philoso-
, growth
....... ........
......... - ......
— appear to us. The center of all the
is the basis of all knowledge.
Now under the light of this law phy ha8 ln thls way beep a contin" sciences can, therefore, be no other
v , ctory of the E xperiential than this continuous Man which
What the world is except in rela­ what is the meaning of Goethe’s
Philosophy, and a confirmation of remains as the subject, the very
tion to consciousness we do not aphorism? The meaning is, that the maxim,—
and only nucleus of the knowable
we only know this world about us
know. What consciousness is ex­ as it is related to us; that we know
Cosmos, which he arranges in order
‘Nihil in intellectu non prius in sensn.’ around him, as he perceives it and
cept in relation to what is perceiv­ only phenomena. We know our
ed, and what is conceived as object­ perceptions of things, and call them That is, “Nothing in the intellect needs and wills it. All the sciences,
that is, all laws and relations, cen­
ive, we do not know. Our world the world. W hat the world may that has not first been in sensation”. ter in him and are knowable only
But the greatest of these triumphs
is the perceptive and the conceptive be beyond its relation to us, and has been the reply of Sociology to as his sensations, thoughts and
our perceptions of it, we have
world. What the world is except neither the capacity nor the means the objection Leibnitz made to this feelings. In this grand continu­
in relation to consciousness is “un­ for learning. The consequences of maxim when he retorted, as is said, ous organism, H umanity , we, there­
knowable”.
this conclusion are of the greatest “with the applause of Europe”, fore, find the convergence of the
intellectus ipsi [Except the in­ external world, as far as we can
The so-called properties of mat­ importance in regard to the subject ‘Nisi
tellect itself]!’—the point of the ob­ know it , under the law of the rela­
ter are, in final analysis, states of before us. It is this conclusion jection being,that the intellect itself tivity of human knowledge.
that points to man as the connect­
mind. No philosophy which dis­ ing mind by which all phenoraenas ’was prior to cr independent of ex­
But if this is true of the materi­
putes or ignores this philosophical are construed together. The nu­ perience, and had forms and capac­ al and biological worlds, it is, if
proposition has any standing in cleus man is the center around ities of thought and even necessary possible, more decisively true and
important in the domain of human
which the knowable world hangs, truths which transcended all exper- societies
court.
and of moral endeavor.
ince. The answer to this has come
Phenomena are facts of conscious­ to which it all comes; for it is the from the light that Social Science For this continuous human organ­
human perceptive power by which
ness. What, in co-operation with all phenomena are co-ordinated and Comparative Psychology have ism, now embracing our planet, has
thrown upon the genesis and his­ gradually incorporated into its con­
consciousness, gives rise to the per­ into the whole , as a world.
tinuity and solidarity the past ages
ception and conception of things ob­
The importance of this latter tory of the human mind and its and
all of the present peoples and
Whatever of these
jective, we do not know, because proposition calls for a fuller con­ conceptions.
appeared inexplicable from the nations. It has become a grand
perception and conception are pro­ sideration. We must take this law study of the individual, or of one unity, being first united emotional­
relativity for granted as the
ducts of thr objective and subject­ of
ly in the sentiment of the humane ;
foundation of all knowable science stage of civilization, yields to the then
by commerce, religion and in­
ive factors.
and philosophy, and, if the Re historical vision that studies the ternational
law, until now’ it dis­
Wo k now color only as a sensa­ ligion of Humanity follows from it, whole human race a s ‘one grand in-
tinctly
aims
at
the conscious control
diuidual’growing through the ages,
tion; we know vibrations of ether we shall have no alternative but to and
retaining by unconscious her­ of itself, and of the earth under the
recognize the fact and to conform to
only as a conception.
of law. It is the great organ­
it. I hat those who have establish edity the results of the various stag­ reign
ism,
the
greatest being known to
Phenomena are appearances , the ed this law have failed to deduce or es of its progress. In his contact
“show of things”; the effects of the to verify all its consequences, is and struggle with his enviroment, us. From it we have come, and
external something upon the sen­ only to say that they discovered a Man has carried away in his inmost have received all that we have in­
herited or acquired, and in it we
larger continent than they were and instinctive nature much that literally
tient organism.
“live, and move and have
able to explore, and that they left we can find no origin for now, un­ our being”.
Some years ago Prof. T. B. Wake­ that work to their successors.
less we look deeply and broadly in­
man, in an excellent address before
I nder the light of such consider­
As the fundamental fact, then, to what we may call the embryolo­
gy
of
the
race.
ations the deeper meaning of
the Free Religious Association, we know the world about us only
Take,
for
instance,
the
explana­
presented this thought very clear­ as phenomena, that is, only as it tion of the conscience , or moral Goethe’s aphorism dawns upon us.
If we ask now, What is the Relig­
ly, and I think his judicious words appears to us. We have only our, sense. It seemed at first wholly ion of Humanity? This law of the
i. e., a human, conception of its
now reproduced, since he belongs properties and relations.
inexplicable,and therefore,of course, relativity of human knowledge an­
to the faculty of the Liberal Uni-
I he primary or permanent, as a divine intuition, or faculty of su­ swers, that it is the sum of all the
versity, will be read with interest wed as the secondary or transient pernatural origin. But this was so relations and emotions, infinite,cos­
only from its individual and partial mic and human, tnat converge in
by the readers of the Torch, and ProPertie8 of matter, and also time examination.
Under the historical M an as the center of the whole
• • ■
- permission they are here­ and space—that is, succession and
with
his
extension—upon final analysis, are analysis of Spencer, Darwin, Tylor knowahle world. These relations
with presented:
found to he modes of our sensation and Fiske, its origin from the nat­ are theoretically known and sum­
ural selection and heredity of the med up in the word “Science”, and
“As to the first question, What is and apprehension.”
Altruistic feelings, that is, those practically, emotionally and mor­
the Religion of Humanity? if I
beneficial to society, is made out as ally in the word “Duty”. “To
should give a short, concrete defi­
plainly as the physiological origin know the true in order to do the
comment by t . b . w .
nition, it would be simply this: It
and evolution of the human eye or good ”, is, therefore, the fundamen­
the S ubjective S ynthesis . If
Mr. Lnderwood has done the hand. In a word, there seems to tal maxim of the New Faith.
u ask further explanation of this Liberal world another service by he nothing in the individual man,
Its creed is S cience , or the Posi­
aphorism WnfUlr translate a llttIe insistence upon the “Relativity of physically, mentally, morally, or
tive Philosophy, formed by co­
apnorism of Goethe, perhaps the v
, , ,; , .
even
spiritually,
that
does
not
be­
ordinating the special sciences in
wisest of men, which may help to KnowledBe and R« Consequences,
come
intelligible
under
this
race - the order in which the forces are
show what depth of meaning lurks " e are Phased that he recognizes explanation when thoroughly ap­
correlated through the material
under this philosophic phrase. The how thoroughly this was done as plied.
world as they pase from the infinite
words of Goethe are: “ We know of the basis of every phase of Science
.............
The next step t is to inquire
how space through the domains which
we
’.nn re^a^ on to man, and Humanism in the address en- the questions of human existence
an ’x n « ; X W
of th".°t
titled ‘'Tbe R eli.lo.of Humanity”, aPPe? ' «“der this law of relativity constitute astronomy,phy sics,chem­
istry, biology, sociology, up to the
If you ask further for an explan, delivered before the Free Religious
rX ^Z redU v”*1 The’^ ^ e r individual man himself. Thus the
ation of this aphorism, I must re- Association, at Boston, May 31, from the law of relativity must h« order of the sciences builds a phi­
losophy that binds the Cosmos into
»
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«
»
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a a ; a =
£
The R elativity of K nowledge.
«ltiet of all the aires of thought and rePr,nt that address, but now we A
. ’UH. iUmanl,tT l8> thtrtfore, organic Humanity, whose good,
experience—“the law of the relativ- can only add the paragraphs which ¡native ca'i- oTeubiect^n ‘
' wel.fare a"d glory become the main-