a perplexed philosopher - schalkenbach.org

1、A Perplexed PhilosopherByHenry Georgewww.grundskyld.dkINTRODUCTIONThe reason for this examinationNo consecrated absurdity would have stood its ground in this world if the man had not silenced the objection of the child.

2、MicheletALTHOUGH he stands for much that is yet in dispute, there can be no question that at the present time 1892—Herbert Spencer, of all his contemporaries, holds the foremost place in the intellectual world, and th

3、rough a wider circle than any man now living, and perhaps than any man of our century, is regarded as a profound, original and authoritative thinker—by many indeed as the greatest thinker the world has ever yet seen.S

4、o large is the field over which Mr. Spencer's writings have ranged, so many are the special branches of knowledge he has laid under contribution, so difficult to the ordinary mind are the abstractions in which he

5、has dealt and the terminology in which they are couched, that this great reputation is with the large majority of the intelligent men who accept it more a matter of faith than of reason. But this rather adds to than d

6、etracts from the popular estimate; for what to us is vague often seems on that account the greater, and what we have no means of measuring, all the more profound. Nor does Mr. Spencer's standing as one of the grea

7、test, to many the very greatest, of philosophers, lack substantial basis in the opinions of those deemed competent to gauge intellectual power.John Stuart Mill styled him “one of the acutest metaphysicians of recent t

8、imes, one of the most vigorous as well as the boldest thinker that English speculation has yet produced.“ Professor Ray Lankester spoke of him as “an acute observer and experimentalist versed in physics and chemistry,

9、 but above all, thoroughly instructed in scientific methods.“ Richard A. Proctor characterized him as the “clearest of thinkers.“ G. H. Lewes said “it is questionable whether any thinker of finer caliber has appeared

10、in our century,“ and that “he alone of all British thinkers has organized a philosophy.“ Professor David Masson deemed him “the one of all our thinkers who has founded for himself the largest new scheme of a systemati