Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Principles of Understanding: An Introduction to Logic From the Standpoint of Personal Idealism
But the most convinced enthusiast could not. Claim that philosophy has given guidance to men engaged in the sort of business which is commonly called useful. I leave aside the general effect of training. It is plain enough that men who have traversed a philosophic curriculum gain advantage thereby for an ordinary professional career; but this is due more to the mental gymnastic than to any specific instruction which their teachers have imparted. What statesman makes any appeal Ito political philosophy; what moral reformer makes appeal to ethics; what educator who professes to train the understanding makes appeal to logic? So patent has it been that philosophy can give no practical advice that Its incapacity has been put forward almost as an axiom. Minerva's owl, said Hegel, cannot begin its ?ight till the shades of evening have begun to fall. But, I think, that owl has hooted long enough. Hegel's alleged necessity of thought is nonsense. It is the duty of philosophy, I maintain, to establish theoretical principles on such matters as politics, moral conduct and education; and these principles should be valuable for the guidance of practical men.
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