Abstract
THIS thoughtful and eloquent address, originally delivered at the celebration of the Martineau centenary, contains much more about absolute idealism than about the philosophic system of the great Unitarian preacher. Prof. Jones, after pointing out the close agreement between Martineau and the Idealists in several respects, finds his text in the division made at the beginning of “Types of Ethical Theory” between systems that start with nature or God, and those that start with the spirit of man. Absolute idealism, of course, ranks under the former head, and the idiopsychological ethics of Martineau under the latter. So in the remainder of the paper the doctrines of absolute idealism are re-stated in a form such as might rob Martineau's chief objections of their force—the objections, in particular, that ethical interests are not conserved, and that a refusal to sever man from nature and God means that man is merged into them and lost within them. Whether the reader will think this re-statement absolutely convincing or not will probably depend on his previous sympathies. Prof. Jones takes occasion, in passing, to notice the similarity of Dr. James Ward's “activity” and Martineau's “free will” as philosophic explanations, and takes occasion, too, as in many other recent utterances, to have one or two clever flings at the Pragmatists.
The Philosophy of Martineau in Relation to the Idealism of the Present Day.
By Prof. Henry Jones. Pp. 37. (London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1905.) Price 1s. net.
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The Philosophy of Martineau in Relation to the Idealism of the Present Day . Nature 74, 53 (1906). https://doi.org/10.1038/074053b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/074053b0