The Alphabet of the Universe: Notes for a Universal Philosophy

Abstract

THE aim of the author of these “skeletonic and informal notes” is “to find the one objective ‘Something’—a quest in which humanity has hitherto been baffled and defeated.” He is so obviously convinced that not withstanding “the failure of Plato, Aristotle, and all later philosophers,” he has really solved “the problem of the Method of the Universe” that he may perhaps be forgiven for allowing his “epoch-making discovery” to be announced in language which inevitably prompts the cautious reader to assure himself that he has not been entrapped by the advertisement of a new patent remedy. Mr. Horner appears to be entitled to the credit of having arrived twenty-five years ago at the now fashionable doctrine that man is essentially a behaving animal—or, as he expresses it, that “man's life is made up simply of a series of acts”—and of having anticipated the Pragmatists in the deduction “that acts form the only proper basis of philosophy.” Unfortunately, he has shown in these pages no competence to construct upon this basis anything with which, even in these hard.times, philosophy should be asked to allow her name to be connected.

The Alphabet of the Universe: Notes for a Universal Philosophy.

By Gurney Horner. Pp. 44. (London: Hayman, Christy and Lilly, Ltd., 1907.) Price 1s. net.