Our standpoint is that of the Aristotelian and Scholastic
Philosophy; but, being imbued with a thoroughly peripatetic spirit,
we desire to keep in constant touch with contemporary science and
thought. The Middle Ages excelled in reflecting upon general
truths. Modern inquirers are wonderfully equipped for the work of
analysis, and bring thereto as much patience as sagacity. Is it not
evidently the proper task of a time-honoured philosophy desirous of
renewing its youth in the world of to-day to bring the wisdom of
past ages to bear upon the latest triumphs of science and doctrines
now accepted? And if this task is faithfully discharged, may not a
real advance be legitimately anticipated? Among the various reviews
of what we have already published is one which we desire to quote,
because it bears witness to the fact that the NeoThomist aim has
been correctly appreciated in the scientific circles from which it
comes. It appeared in M. Richet's Revue scientifique. "This
work"-our treatise on Psychology-" is well worth pointing out to
those who have given up official Spiritualism and who are looking
for a philosophy which may be reconciled with science. " The
Neo-Thomist school has renewed the youth of Scholastic teaching by
becoming thoroughly imbued with the peripatetic spirit. It abandons
all the doctrines that were founded upon a too scanty knowledge of
nature, and it takes full advantage of modern discoveries, studying
them according to the method of Aristotle. "So great is the
vitality of this philosophy that it finds a place in its scheme for
the contemporary researches of physiology and psychophysics without
compromising any principle, and without ever misrepresenting
science, as is constantly done in standard books. Far from dreading
physiological investigation it regrets that its studies on the
nervous system, mental localization, and the senses, have not been
carried further, for in them it recognizes indispensable
auxiliaries. M. Mercier congratulates the pioneers of physiological
psychology on restoring traditions which had been broken by an
interval of many centuries." The present treatise is specially
addressed to those who are no longer satisfied with the standard
spiritualism, and if amidst the swarm of systems and growing crowd
of facts that are around them they are in search of some guiding
principle of thought, they may perhaps be able to take advantage of
the comparison we shall endeavour to make between the psychology of
Descartes, the chief founder of the official spiritualism, and the
anthropology of Aristotle and the Middle Ages. Chapter I is devoted
to an examination of the psychology of the great French innovator.
In it we shall deal first with his exaggerated spiritualistic
theory, and then with his mechanical theory as applied to the study
of man. Chapter II aims at determining the historical evolution of
the Cartesian psychology, and we do this according to the scheme
laid down in Chapter I, examining, first, the evolution of
spiritualism (Art. I), which gives rise to Occasionalism,
Spinozism, Ontologism (Sect. I), and Idealism (Sect. II); next, the
evolution of the mechanical theory (Art. II).
General
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