PROFESSOR FISCHER'S "DESCARTES AND HIS SCHOOL."
WE give a hearty welcome to this translation of the first volume of Professor Fischer's great work on the History of Modern Philosophy. It gives us pleasure to see this work within the reach of English students of philosophy, and we are glad to find that the rendering into English is in every way competent and adequate. It is also eminently readable, and readers need not be troubled with the suspicion that they have not a true repre- sentation of the work of Professor Fischer before them. They may use it with the most perfect confidence in its accuracy.
This work is one which may be read not only by professional students, but by busy people in all walks of life who have a desire to make themselves acquainted with the best thoughts of the highest thinkers on God, man, and the world. As Dr. Porter says in the preface, Professor Fischer "is uniformly clear, spirited, and exhaustive. He is also popular in the best sense of the term, being neither technical nor abstract beyond the necessities imposed by his theme, and connecting with the thorough and masterly discussion of schools and opinions as much of personal and general historic interest as could be expected or desired." Ordinary histories of philosophy are usually so abstract, and apparently remote from human interest, and bristle so thickly with technicalities, that the general student usually gives them a wide berth. This result is not good either for the ordinary student or for the historian of philosophy. We are of opinion, however, that in the present instance a wider circle of readers will be won, and the number of students will be increased. For the history of philosophy is one of the most fascinating stories which any historian has to tell, and as told by Professor Fischer ought to be as interesting as Macaulay's England. To present in an effective manner the story of the life and work of the makers of modern philosophy, to sketch the forces and circum- stances which moulded them and gave to their thinking its cast and tendency, and to show in some adequate manner how each received the problem of philosophy from his predecessors, and what solution of it he handed down to his successors,—this, if well done, is surely an important work. And this is what Professor Kuno Fischer has done.
The present volume includes the "General Introduction," and brings down the account of Descartes and his school so far as to leave only Spinoza to be dealt with at similar length. We trust that the second volume, which deals with Spinoza, will speedily follow, and that at no great date the other volumes will be also demanded by English students of philosophy. The "General Introduction" is a luminous piece of writing. Beginning with a chapter descriptive of the history of philo- sophy as science, it proceeds to sketch the course of development of Greek philosophy, then deals with Christianity and the Church, traces the course of development of the philosophy of the Middle Ages, describes the periods of the Renaissance and of the Reformation, and finally gives an outline of the course of modern philosophy. The introduction thus prepares the way for the study of Descartes, with whom philosophy in its modern form is univer- sally acknowledged to begin. We are tempted to linger over the introduction, as we have found it full of suggestive views. Much has been written on Greek philosophy, but we know nothing more fitted to be helpful to the student than the statement of
• History of Modern Philosophy Descartes and his School. By Kano Fischer. Translated from the Third and Revised German Edition, by J. P. Gordy, Ph.D. Edited by Noah Porter, D.D., LL.D. London : T. Fisher Dnwin.
the development of Greek philosophy contained in this volume, —how the problem of the world, its material, its order, and its process, was found to be insoluble, and led on to the higher problem of knowledge, and this in turn gave place to the problem of freedom, and this raised finally the problem of religion. We quote the following on the problem of religion :—
" We ourselves are the world. Our natural love of self and our natural understanding are also world : they are fundamentally powers of tho world, since without them there is no world which we conceive or desire. And just this world which is identical with ourselves, which we ourselves are in a certain sense, is, in the ideal of the Stoics, Epicureans, Sceptics, so little overcome that it is rather deified in it. To get rid of this world, of this our own nature which is of the world, which is indeed experienced as evil, to free ourselves thoroughly from it, to fling away and break through this self which takes us prisoner and holds us down,—this is now the problem of philosophy, and at the same time the longing of all who are sensible of the calamities of the time, and the deep inner ruin of man. This ardent desire for freedom from our own wordly and selfish nature is the desire for salvation, and so it is an absolutely religions motive which now animates philosophy, and urges it directly towards human redemption. It seeks the way to this goal : it aims itself to be the means of salva- tion, it announces itself as a doctrine of salvation. In this spirit, and in this motive, must we judge its conceptions and its effects. Its problem is the last of antiquity,—the salvation of the world. What it would call into life is a world religion ; and it seeks to attain it, first through a purification of the old faith in the gods, and second, through a restoration of it. With this thought it prepares for, and goes to meet, Christianity, contends and struggles with it for the victory, which it finally loses. But the idea of a world-saving religion was received in and nourished by the consciousness of the Grecian world : and when aspiring Christianity broke through the limits of Judaism, it found here the most fruitful soil." (p. 30.) It is a great thing to have stated the successive problems of Greek philosophy in such a way as to make intelligible the subsequent course of human thought. And in these sections of the introduction, Professor Fischer shows how inevitable was the transition from the problem of knowledge to the problem of religion. The conception of God passes away from that phase of it which makes him a principle for the explanation of things, to that which makes him to be the ideal of man striving for salvation. A similar transition is found in modern philosophy, where we find the Kantian question as to the possibility of knowledge turned into the Hegelian position of the absolute certainty of religion.
It would be instructive to follow Professor Fischer in his luminous exposition of the strife and reconciliation of Greek thought and Hebrew religion. Some statements there are with which we are unable to agree, more particularly those which relate to the rise and progress of Christianity. Here he follows Baur somewhat too closely, and clings to positions which are out of date. Apart from that, he has given in a few pages an exposition of the problems of philosophy in these and subse- quent ages which enables the reader to have a clear conception of its main course.
We may call attention, in passing, to his solution of a problem which perplexes the student of history. The problem is how to account for the acceptance of a doctrine of salvation by works, in a system in which everything depends on the Church, and nothing on the natural man :—
"In the course of the development of the church, conclusions were necessarily drawn which obscured the principle of Augustinianism. Faith in the church is unconditional obedience, and this does what the church requires. Obedience can show itself in but one way,—by obedient conduct, by external works, in this case by ecclesiastical works. Inwardly, these works may be merely mechanical ; out- wardly, they may far exceed the measure of what is required, and be meritorious and holy ; and from the nature of works they must be judged from without. Hence the possibility arises of earning merit, and justifying one's self, by works. But if works avail as a means of justification, human co-operation is no longer excluded from the conditions of salvation and in the same proportion as this co- operation is meritorious, validity is conceded to human freedom also, and thus there proceeded from the faith in the church which Augustine grounded, the doctrine of the merit of good works, which, in contradiction with Augustinianism, rests on the Pelagian doctrine of freedom. After this doctrine had reached its extremest
Auguatine's fundamental thought of the sinful nature of man was emphasised anew as a reforming power. Within the Christianity of the West it broke through the authority of the Roman-Catholic system in Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin ; and within Catholicism, as Jansenism, it attacked the system of the Jesuits."
We find so many points of interest in the introduction, that we are in danger of forgetting the main part of the work. Indeed, on reflection, we shall not in the present notice enter on any discussion of the history. For the present volume contains an account only of the first steps in the great movement of modern
thought, and breaks off at that point where, in the hands of • (1.) Lotus and Jewel. By Edwin Arnold. London : Trtibner and 00. 1887.
Spinoza and Leibnitz, it raises larger issues. It must suffice and Co. 1886.
to say that here we have one of the best accounts of the historical position and philosophical significance of the method and system of Descartes which have ever appeared. In what state he found the problem of philosophy, how he dealt with it, and how he set it forth for his successors, is clearly explained. We must also remark that this history of philosophy has some unique and remarkable features which largely increase its value. It recognises the unity of movement in human life and thought. It does not limit itself to one phase, or dwell exclusively on what has usually been recognised as philosophy. While setting forth with clearness and full- ness the main problems with which philosophy busied itself, the history looks on these as symptomatic of the condition of human life and thought at the time, and deals with them accordingly. The problems of philosophy have their counter- parts in politics, in social life, and in religion ; and one great merit of this book is the constant recognition of the solidarity of life, and of the fact that any solution found by philosophy has a great and abiding influence on character and conduct in nations and individuals. We shall look forward with interest and expectation to the completion of this translation, and we hope Professor Fischer will live to finish the work he has in hand.
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