From the Preface. IT is the aim of this work to consider thought as a reality, to approach it as any work of true science approaches its material. It first discusses the relations that make up the substance of actual thought. It then analyzes thought into its elements, and follows it into its fundamental divisions. It shows the methods of each of these, the kind of argument, and the degree of certainty of which it admits, its dangers and its safeguards, and how all of these divisions are the parts of a common whole. And, ...
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From the Preface. IT is the aim of this work to consider thought as a reality, to approach it as any work of true science approaches its material. It first discusses the relations that make up the substance of actual thought. It then analyzes thought into its elements, and follows it into its fundamental divisions. It shows the methods of each of these, the kind of argument, and the degree of certainty of which it admits, its dangers and its safeguards, and how all of these divisions are the parts of a common whole. And, finally, it considers thought in its completeness. It seeks to determine its limits and its scope, and to that end it considers some of the actual problems with which thought has to contend, so far as the possibility of their solution depends upon or illustrates the nature and limits of thought itself. Such is at least the plan of the present work; and without regard to the success or failure of its execution, such, I am confident, must be, in general, the plan of any true system of logic; or, if the true meaning and use of this term should be made a matter of dispute, such must be, in general, the plan and scope of any work that shall treat thought as an object of scientific study. There was never a period when such a study was more important than it is at present, because there was never a time when thought was so wide-spread and so far-reaching. The mind of the people no longer contents itself with following its old guides. It is feeling its own way. It is seeking, honestly and anxiously, to distinguish the true and the false. Then, too, there was never a time when opposite systems of thought so asserted each its absolute supremacy. Systems of religion, systems of morals, of politics, of philosophy, place themselves over against each other, each denying to the other any ground on which it may stand. Science on the one side, and religion or philosophy on the other, stand thus in antagonism. Nothing is more needed than an attempt to expose the nature and real processes of thought, and while recognizing each of these elements to remand each back to its place as a member of the common whole. Although the survey of this field makes me feel more than ever the imperfection of the present undertaking, it makes me feel, also, that no such attempt, honestly and earnestly made, can be altogether in vain. I have called this work "The Science of Thought," because its scope is somewhat broader and its analysis of forms less detailed than might be expected in a treatise on Logic. The term Logic is, however, assuming a larger significance than it once possessed. The principles of thought no less than logical forms are receiving profound attention. The scholastic logic did not treat of thought as a reality. It discussed certain abstract relations under which thought is possible. They discuss some of the preliminaries of thought. It is as if a writer on entomology, should content himself, first, with showing that each insect must consist of three parts, namely, the head, the thorax, and the abdomen, and then with discussing the manner in which these parts should be related. It could be shown how either might be in the middle; but that there could be a true insect only when the thorax was between the head and the abdomen. I suppose that these matters, and what might be suggested by them, could be discussed through volumes. The student could be trained to draw fancy pictures of possible insects with the thorax properly in the middle. But whether there was ever a real insect like one of these, or what to call a real insect when he saw it, or what are the shapes and habits of the real insect world, of all this he would know nothing.
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