The Sensational Idealism of Locke, Berkeley, and Hume (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1904. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... The George Washington University. BULLETIN. Voi, . 3. December, 1904. No. 4. o T. THE SENSATIONAL IDEALISM OF LOCKE, BERKELEY, AND HUME * BY JAMES MACBRIDE STERRETT, A.M., D.D., Head Professor of Philosophy. There are two opposing dicta as to historical systems of philosophy: 1. Each succeeding system refutes the preceding ones, so that there is no result. 2. No system of philosophy has ever been refuted. We hold with the latter--that philosophy is an organism of thought, in which the various historical systems are vital members. The only way any one destroys another is by fulfilling it, by at most reducing it from its position of the whole to that of a member of the whole. Thus modern philosophy is vitally connected with ancient philosophy, and thus the whole of modern philosophy, from Descartes to Hegel, is a complemental evolution of earlier systems. We can separate modern from ancient philosophy by the emphasis which it throughout has placed upon the problem of knowing, while ancient philosophy dwelt rather upon the problem of being, of ultimate reality. But modern philosophy is epistemological only as a necessary step to ontology. We get at being, at reality, only through knowing. The validity of what we know depends upon the character of our knowing processes. Modern philosophy is as prevailingly subjective as ancient philosophy was objective. It opened in Descartes with a subjective note. In his appeal to self-consciousness, Descartes started this subjective trend which philosophy has, as yet, scarcely transcended. Descartes himself used this appeal to Paper read before the Society for Philosophical Inquiry, Nov. 29, 1904. self-consciousness to pass to objectivity, to reality, but to a double form of it--to two substances, to mind and matter-- disparate an..