Introduction to the Study of Philosophy Author:William T. Harris Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. PRESUPPOSITIONS OF EXPERIENCE. Nature of the Problems of Philosophy—The Starting-Point in Philosophical Investigation—Space, Time: Infinite—Eff... more »ect, Cause, Causa sui, or Self- cause— Beings: Dependent, implies another, derived from another= World; Independent, whole, totality, self-determined=Creator. Nature of the Problems of Philosophy.— "The problems of philosophy are perennial. Each individual must solve them for himself when he comes to the age of reflection. No number of philosophers can ever settle philosophic questions so that it will not be necessary for each individual to think out solutions for himself. Questions of mere fact in nature can be settled by investigation, so that a mere statement suffices to convey the result to a school-boy. But it is not possible to ' settle' matters of insight just as we settle matters of fact. A trnth that "requires for its comprehension a certain degree of cultured power of thought can not, by any possibility, be taught as a matter of fact to a youth who has not yet arrived at the necessary stage of thinking. " We recognize this quite readily in the acquirement of mathematical truth. Such truth can not be conveyed to minds that will not or can not grasp the elementary conceptions and make the combinations necessary. Only by intellectual energy can those truths be seen, and evenmathematics has not ' settled' anything for people who have no insight into its demonstrations. Philosophic knowing is knowing of logical conditions of being and experience. It is, therefore, a special kind of knowing that arises from reflection. These logical conditions of existence are invisible to the one who does not specially reflect upon them. When one sees them at all, he sees that they are necessary elements of experi ence. It is a ...« less