Introduction

Philosophy. Philosophy means literally the love of Wisdom. It is the love of a hidden treasure. Therefore it comes to mean a search after Wisdom.

Physical Philosophy. That this hidden treasure is not something which can be seen or handled, weighed or measured, all have confessed. Yet it may be sought among the things that are seen and handled, weighed and measured, or, to use a more general expression still, among the things that are produced and grow—among Physical things.

Metaphysical Philosophy. The philosopher asks whether Wisdom is in these things; whether it is of the same kind with them; or whether it is of a different kind, whether it is fixed, constant, unproduced? He who seeks for an object which is not of the same kind with the things around him is called a Metaphysical philosopher.

Moral Philosophy. But how has he learned to dream of an object different in kind from these things? Is he different from them? How comes he to desire this Wisdom, this hidden treasure? Must it not have more to do with him than with them? If he knew himself, the ways, habits, manners, which belong to his race, might he not be nearer to the object which he seeks? These ways, habits, manners, occupy the Moral philosopher.

Design of this Treatise. It is the purpose of the present sketch to indicate how men have been led into these inquiries, how in different countries and ages they have been pursued, what have been the issues of them.

Subjects— how connected in it. Moral inquiries are suggested by our daily acts, our ordinary speech, our necessary relations. Metaphysical inquiries are suggested by the discovery of powers in ourselves which we do not find in other creatures. The former therefore concern us most, and in a history will present themselves first to our notice. But we shall find that they cannot be separated. Of physical inquiries, so far as they have been entered upon merely for the sake of ascertaining the order and constitution of the world around us, nothing will be reported. So far as they have been suggested by the desire to find Wisdom, they are too much involved in moral inquiries, they are too evidently presumed in the word metaphysical to be passed over. The philosopher seeks for Wisdom everywhere that he may know where it is not.

Limitation of the subject. All nations have been engaged in this search for Wisdom, those most actively which have left most records of themselves in the History of the World. Buildings, poems, pictures, mechanical arts, above all polities, have indicated the direction which different periods, countries, individuals have taken in the pursuit. But the name “Philosopher” has been generally and rightly confined to one who has engaged deliberately in the search, and has traced out a method in it. Such a man interprets the less conscious striving of his contemporaries.

Not a history of opinions and systems, but of investigations. It would, however, be a fatal mistake to make even the most rapid and superficial sketch of philosophical investigations merely a record of the conclusions at which different Schools have arrived. These conclusions are in general premature efforts to terminate the search for Wisdom, to confine the results of it within a few meagre propositions. To trace the thoughts which were working in the minds of those who founded Schools, to discover how they were affected by their characters, teachers, disciples, opponents, personal and political conflicts, to watch the processes by which they were expanded, completed, narrowed, is a far more interesting work, and one which falls far more properly within the province of the historian of philosophy. Those who busy themselves with the speculations and contradictions of Schools are likely to begin with extravagant expectations and to end in despondency. Earnest sympathising meditations upon the actual efforts of men to discover the secret of their life, and the ends for which they live, contain equal encouragements to humility and to hope.

Division of the subject. This sketch will consist of two parts. It will treat of the Philosophy before and after the coming of Christ. The subjects considered in the first part will be—1st. The Hebrew Philosophy; 2nd. The Hindoo; 3rd. The Chinese; 4th. The Persian; 5th. The Greek; 6th. The Roman; 7th. The Græco-Hebraic or Alexandrian. In the second part the subjects will be—1. The Philosophy of the first six centuries; 2. The Philosophy of the Middle Ages; 3. The Philosophy of the centuries from the thirteenth to our own time.