Initiation into Philosophy

Initiation into Philosophy

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Title: Initiation into Philosophy
Author: Emile Faguet
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INITIATION INTO PHILOSOPHY
by Émile Faguet of the French Academy
Author of "The Cult Of Incompetence," "Initiation Into Literature," etc.

Translated from the French by Sir Homer Gordon, Bart.
1914

PREFACE
This volume, as indicated by the title, is designed to show the way to
the beginner, to satisfy and more especially to excite his initial curiosity.
It affords an adequate idea of the march of facts and of ideas. The
reader is led, somewhat rapidly, from the remote origins to the most
recent efforts of the human mind.
It should be a convenient repertory to which the mind may revert in
order to see broadly the general opinion of an epoch--and what
connected it with those that followed or preceded it. It aims above all at
being a frame in which can conveniently be inscribed, in the course of
further studies, new conceptions more detailed and more thoroughly
examined.
It will have fulfilled its design should it incite to research and
meditation, and if it prepares for them correctly.
E. FAGUET.

CONTENTS


PART I ANTIQUITY


CHAPTER I
BEFORE SOCRATES
Philosophical Interpreters of the Universe, of the Creation and
Constitution of the World.


CHAPTER II
THE SOPHISTS
Logicians and Professors of Logic, and of the Analysis of Ideas, and of
Discussion.


CHAPTER III
SOCRATES
Philosophy Entirely Reduced to Morality, and Morality Considered as
the End of all Intellectual Activity.


CHAPTER IV
PLATO
Plato, like Socrates, is Pre-eminently a Moralist, but he Reverts to
General Consideration of the Universe, and Deals with Politics and

Legislation.


CHAPTER V
ARISTOTLE
A Man of Encyclopaedic Learning; as Philosopher, more especially
Moralist and Logician.


CHAPTER VI
VARIOUS SCHOOLS
The Development in Various Schools of the General Ideas of Socrates,
Plato, and Aristotle.


CHAPTER VII
EPICUREANISM
Epicureanism Believes that the Duty of Man is to seek Happiness, and
that Happiness Consists in Wisdom.


CHAPTER VIII
STOICISM
The Passions are Diseases which can and must be Extirpated.


CHAPTER IX
ECLECTICS AND SCEPTICS
Philosophers who Wished to Belong to No School. Philosophers who
Decried All Schools and All Doctrines.

CHAPTER X
NEOPLATONISM
Reversion to Metaphysics. Imaginative Metaphysicians after the
Manner of Plato, but in Excess.


CHAPTER XI
CHRISTIANITY
Philosophic Ideas which Christianity Welcomed, Adopted, or Created;
How it must Give a Fresh Aspect to All Philosophy, even that Foreign
to Itself.


PART II IN THE MIDDLE AGES


CHAPTER I
FROM THE FIFTH CENTURY TO THE THIRTEENTH
Philosophy is only an Interpreter of Dogma. When it is Declared
Contrary to Dogma by the Authority of Religion, it is a Heresy.
Orthodox and Heterodox Interpretations. Some Independent
Philosophers.


CHAPTER II
THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY
Influence of Aristotle. His Adoption by the Church. Religious

Philosophy of St. Thomas Aquinas.


CHAPTER III
THE FOURTEENTH AND FIFTEENTH CENTURIES
Decadence of Scholasticism. Forebodings of the Coming Era. Great
Moralists. The Kabbala. Sorcery.


CHAPTER IV
THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
It Is Fairly Accurate to Consider that from the Point of View of
Philosophy, the Middle Ages Lasted until Descartes. Free-thinkers
More or Less Disguised. Partisans of Reason Apart from Faith, of
Observation, and of Experiment.


PART III MODERN TIMES


CHAPTER I
THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
Descartes. Cartesianism.


CHAPTER II
CARTESIANS
All the Seventeenth Century was under the Influence of Descartes.

Port-Royal, Bossuet, Fénelon, Malebranche, Spinoza, Leibnitz.