REVIEW.

Press, Volume XL, Issue 5885, 24 July 1884, Page 3

REVIEW.

DIALECTIC*

In this pamphlet Professor Haslam presents to a larger audience his recent address to the Dialectical Society of Canterbury College, and we congratulate him on having done so. His narrative of the early history of dialectic will give pleasure wherever it is read, and his views on the place in education of this branch of logic are worthy of all attention. The study of Greek philosophy is indeed invaluable, and the results justify all that Professor Haslam Bays in favor of "Dialectic." The multiform conceptions of the nature of things which those ancient philosophers with their imperfect knowledge and high aspirations depicted, form a sombre and effective background to the goldec truths which Socrates was enabled to discover by his famous method, for, as is shown in this pamphlet, there was no dialectic worthy of the name before Socrates. Even he did not always use it with accuracy; in the Phaedo, for instance, where the final argument for the immortality of the soul appears to be only a jjetitio principii. But he always aimed at using it for a guide to truth, and to truth it generally led him. When his premises were incorrect not even his lofty aims and masterly dialectic could keep him from error. That they were often correct the many noble successes which crowned his labours sufficiently prove. It is his lasting glory that before physical science worthy of the name came into existence, he had attained to a knowledge of troths which our philosophers are only now gaining;, after 280 years of devoted adherence to the* true methods of investigation. , .-■ * H Like many another who has begun by writing about dialectic, Professor Haslam ends with a eulogy of Socrates. la this case it is artistically made the main object—the exposition of xSe i virtues of dialectic. Speaking of Socrates' blameless life he says, " It sounds pedantic, aosurd, to say of BUC J^d^.4|fa h i9 became what he was tcuce or dialectic—and yet it is #gsSfig!but the truth." This is suggesttyeo&Tfcfy Sfoflfrflfe tenet that it is only the right in order to do it*an&ideikOftfuch, however attractive, is uo&Apptlgr WjhArue. We prefer to think Spates ignored dialectic and devotee* himself, as he was at one time very near doing, to the etudy which Bacon made his own .SOOO years afterwards — natural science, he would yet have lived out as beautiful and memorable a life. With all his enthusiasm for the Socratic philosophy, Professor Haslam recognises the weakness which, with all other systems prior to Bacon, it exhibits. The lack of certain and demonstrated facts was a frequent vitiator of the Greek philosopher's wcrk. Dialectic is a fine tool to build with, but the structure is worthless without secure foundations. Socrates verified his premises, but his ultimate standard I was the opinion of man—an opinion in those days formed on a cursory view of things, and. unchecked by that close and ' persistent research into them which began j with Bacon and Descartes. It is with a just and liberal appreciation of this that our author, i e fec e, "*¥' et ' "great biologist recently <&ad (Charles Btvrw*a>, «mc | through, his labors natural and' experimental science may- now join hands with, psychological and ethical research for the common object of establishing a rule of conduct -for man. He concludes' with the following fine passage:—"/Co stereotype any such role of conduct is nothing less than to set barriers to the development of human thought, to court catastrophe, Instead of to encourage systematic, noiseless growth.' But, on the, other hand, to admit that all rules of conduct, all conceptions of good, all distinctions between right and wrong, are historical developments in obedience to certain laws, this is to put ourselves in harmony with nature and to recognise in the world of thought, even a3 we do in the stars of heaven, the presence of that meving order which is more than rest."

■Dialectic : Its early history and its place in education. By F. W. Haalajn, id. A, Christchorch, 1881. Messrs Whitcombe and Tombs.