PREFACE

These lectures are based on a return to that phase of philosophical thought which began with Descartes and ended with Hume. The philosophical scheme which they endeavor to explain is called the "Philosophy of Organism." No doctrine presented here lacks support from an explicit statement by one of this group of thinkers, or from one of the two founders of all Western thought, Plato and Aristotle. However, the philosophy of organism tends to emphasize exactly those elements in the writings of these masters which later systematizers systematizers: thinkers who organize ideas into a structured, logical system, often simplifying the original theories have set aside. The writer who most fully anticipated the main positions of the philosophy of organism is John Locke in his Essay, especially¹ in its later books.

The lectures are divided into five parts. In the first part, the method is explained, and the scheme of ideas—in terms of which the cosmology cosmology: a philosophical study of the origin, nature, and structure of the universe is to be framed—is stated in summary.

Pencil marks and numbers

In the second part, an effort is made to show that this scheme is adequate for interpreting the ideas and problems which form the complex texture of civilized thought. Without such an investigation, the summary statement of Part I is practically unintelligible. Thus, Part II immediately gives meaning to the verbal phrases of the scheme by using them in discussion, and it demonstrates the power of the scheme to place the various elements of our experience into a consistent relationship with each other. In order to obtain a reasonably complete account of human experience considered in relation to the philosophical—

¹ See original: Cf. (Latin abbreviation for confer, meaning "compare" or "refer to") An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book IV, Chapter VI, Section 11.