An Inquiry Into the Theories of History: With Special Reference to the Principles of the Positive PhilosophyAllen, 1862 - 441 pages |
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according admitted affirms alleged animal anti-theistic argument ascribed assumed belief causes and effects Comte Comte's conceived conception conclusion consistent constitution d'une deny Descartes distinct divine doctrine of chance doctrine of final essentiellement être existence explain expression fact fetichism final causes fixed and invariable fundamental heavenly bodies human mind hypothesis idea imperfect inconsistent inference inmost nature intellectual effect intelligence invariable law l'humanité Lucretius matter means ment Mill mode of production monotheism moral disorder motion natural laws naturelles nécessairement necessarily necessary law necessity noumenon object operation organization pheno phenomena phénomènes Philosophie Positive Physical cause Physical effect polytheism positive philosophy positive science positive verification positivism primary cause principle produce proof providential quelconque question reason relations resemblance scientific sensations Sir George Lewis social spontaneous spontaneous order substance supposed supreme theism theistic theological theory of chance things thought tion true truth universe volitions
Popular passages
Page 345 - On the contrary, creation is conceived, and is by us conceivable, only as the evolution of existence from possibility into actuality, by the fiat of the Deity. Let us place ourselves in imagination at its very crisis. Now, can we construe it to thought, that the moment after the universe flashed into material reality, into manifested being, there was a larger complement of existence in the universe and its Author together, than, the moment before, there subsisted in the Deity alone ? This we are...
Page 347 - We are thus taught the salutary lesson, that the capacity of thought is not to be constituted into the measure of existence ; and are warned from recognizing the domain of our knowledge as necessarily co-extensive with the horizon of our faith.
Page 196 - There is not the slightest reason for believing, that what we call the sensible qualities of the object are a type of anything inherent in itself, or bear any affinity to its own nature. A cause does not, as such, resemble its...
Page 306 - NATURE, we learn from the past history of our globe that she has advanced with slow and stately steps, guided by the archetypal light amidst the wreck of worlds, from the first embodiment of the vertebrate idea under its old ichthyic vestment, until it became arrayed in the glorious garb of the human form.
Page 347 - On this opinion, therefore, reason is shown to be weak, but not deceitful. The mind is not represented as conceiving two propositions subversive of each other, as equally possible ; but only, as unable to understand as possible, either of two extremes ; one of which, however, on the ground of their mutual repugnance, it is compelled to recognize as true.
Page 347 - And by a wonderful revelation, we are thus, in the very consciousness of our inability to conceive aught above the relative and finite, inspired with a belief in the existence of something unconditioned beyond the sphere of all comprehensible reality.* 2.
Page 345 - But the complement, the quantum, of existence, thought as constituent of an object, — that we cannot represent to ourselves, either as increased, without abstraction from other entities, or as diminished, without annexation to them. In short, we are unable to construe it in thought that there can be an atom absolutely added to, or absolutely taken away from, existence in general.
Page 420 - ... to its own nature. A cause does not, as such, resemble its effects ; an east wind is not like the feeling of cold, nor is heat like the steam of boiling water : why, then, should matter resemble our sensations?
Page 26 - Rome, therefore, it was regarded as the mark of a good citizen, never to despair of the fortunes of the republic; so the good citizen of the world, whatever may be the political aspect of his own times, will never despair of the fortunes of the human race; but will act npon the conviction, that prejudice, slavery and corruption, must gradually give way to truth, liberty and virtue...
Page 223 - Nous ne pouvons évidemment savoir ce que sont au fond cette action mutuelle des astres, et cette pesanteur des corps terrestres : une tentative quelconque à cet égard serait, de toute nécessité, profondément illusoire aussi bien que parfaitement oiseuse ; les esprits entièrement étrangers aux études scientifiques peuvent seuls s'en occuper aujourd'hui. Mais nous connaissons, avec une pleine certitude, l'existence et la loi de ces deux ordres de phénomènes; et nous savons, en outre, qu'ils...