In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

42 11 [Notes on the First Issue of the Monist] 23 October 1890 The Nation —Many minds nowadays are turning towards high philosophy with expectations such as wide-awake men have not indulged during fifty years of Hamiltonianism, Millism, and Spencerianism; so that the establishment of a new philosophical quarterly which may prove a focus for all the agitation of thought that struggles today to illuminate the deepest problems with light from modern science, is an event worthy of particular notice. The first number of the Monist (Open Court Publishing Company) opens with good promise, in articles by two Americans, one Englishman, three Germans, two Frenchmen. Mr. A. Binet, student of infusorial psychology, treats of the alleged physical immortality of some of these organisms. In the opening paper, Dr. Romanes defends against Wallace his segregation supplement to the Darwinian theory, i.e., that the divergence of forms is aided by varieties becoming incapable of crossing, as, for instance, by blossoming at different seasons. Prof. Cope, who, if he sometimes abandons the English language for the jargon of biology, is always distinguished by a clear style, ever at his command in impersonal matters, gives an analysis of marriage, not particularly original, and introduces a slight apology for his former recommendation of temporary unions. Prof. Ernst Mach has an “anti-metaphysical” article characteristic of the class of ingenious psychologists, if not perhaps quite accurate thinkers, to which he belongs. Mr. Max Dessoir recounts exceedingly interesting things about magic mirrors considered as hypnotizing apparatus. Mr. W. M. Salter and M. Lucien Arréat tell us something of the psychology of Höffding and of Fouillée. Among the book-notices, a certain salad of Hegel and mathematics excites our curiosity and provokes an appetite for more of this sort. The writer makes much ado to state Dr. F. E. Abbot’s metaphysics, certainly as easily intelligible a theory as ever was. 11. The First Issue of the Monist, 1890 43 —It remains to explain the name Monist. Dr. Carus, the putative editor , says: “The philosophy of the future will be a philosophy of facts, it will be positivism; and in so far as a unitary systematization of facts is the aim and ideal of all science, it will be Monism.” But this is no definition of monism at all; in fact, the last clause conveys no idea. The search for a unitary conception of the world, or for a unitary systematization of science, would be a good definition of philosophy; and, with this good old word at hand, we want no other. To use the word monism in this sense would be in flagrant violation at once of usage and of the accepted principles of philosophical terminology. But this is not what is meant. Monism, as Dr. Carus himself explains it in his Fundamental Problems, p. 256, is a metaphysical theory opposed to dualism or the theory of two kinds of substance—mind and matter—and also conceiving itself to be different both from idealism and materialism. But idealism and materialism are almost identical: the only difference is that idealism regards the psychical mode of activity as the fundamental and universal one, of which the physical mode is a specialization; while materialism regards the laws of physics as at the bottom of everything, and feeling as limited to special organizations. The metaphysicians who call themselves Monists are usually materialists sans le savoir. The true meaning attaching to the title of the magazine may be read in these words of the editor: We are driven to the conclusion that the world of feelings forms an inseparable whole together with a special combination of certain facts of the objective world, namely, our body. It originates with this combination, and disappears as soon as that combination breaks to pieces. . . . Subjectivity must be conceived as the product of a coöperation of certain elements which are present in the objective world. . . . Motions are not transformed into feelings, but certain motions, . . . when coöperating in a special form, are accompanied with feelings. ...

Share