FALLACIES

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20215, 18 April 1931, Page 14

FALLACIES

XXXV.—THAT PHILOSOPHSm NOT PRACTICAL MM V ■ [By the Vbn. Ahchdkacon L. G. WHingßm.'ic^

The ancient ta|e of the dreamy seer who, gazing at the stars, fell into a well, is supposed to express the popular idea of a philosopher's attitude to practical affairs. Neither his interests nor those of the mass of men are supposed to have anything in common. The fact that professors of utilitarian sciences, such as physics and chemistry, are sometimes the most abstracted and absent-minded men is not evidence against the value of their studies. But if a philosopher be able .to pay his way, it is regarded as a surprising fact, a miracle of the firstmagnitude. I suppose that the greatest names in European philosophy are those of' Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Kant, Hegel, and Spinoza. If such men are judged practical by their ability to take their place in the world of eating and drinking, of buying and selling, then no oh j has had a better, claim to practicality than they. Plato would have been one of the greatest statesmen of all time if he had lived in circumstances which had given scope to his abilities. Aristotle is famous as one of the most practical of philosophers in his deep interest in| the common things of life. Of Plotinus it is recorded that he had charge of many yards, and that, though he was.often absorbed in sublime speculation, "he always found time for those" that came to submit returns of the children's property, and he looked .closely to the accuracy of the accounts." Kant was famous for the exactitude nth which he attended to the ordinary affairs of life. "What strikes us "most in the life of Hegel is - "the combination of a deeply idealistic, poetical,' and religious view of the world, with* that practical good sense t and that critical of understanding which axe usually the possession of another order of minds." Spinoza' was not only ,a philosopher, but also a saint. Yet he was in contact with solid ®wrth, ;for once a quarter.he regularly settled,: his accounts and paid outstanding 'debts, taking cSlre to live within income in order, to use Ks own words, mnfrw ends meet, like the qnafce Jfliat • forms a circle with its tail in its mouth." Our tfwn Bishop Bejrkefey, a philosopher If there ever was one," was a of great ■ active 1 benevolence, .even thopgh the practical value of Ids tar-water medicine to doubt. ' 1 1 ~ ~ ~ J * , < The distinction betweeff knowing and acting, between the theoretical and the practice life, must hfcve bwn najigeil very parly in the history of thought. We find it in Aristotlf'e Ethics, and, in our own day, in Crpcers philosophy of the Spirit., But it is a very fluid. distinctly, i a. man practical? ' Some of the discoveries most valui&le for utilitarian purposes Ijavetjeen ware ;inspired by wholly tiMMpetifd: considerations! " says Christopher "Bawson, "ow its, birth to the , unjSPiof: a the enjjgtfo genius of tbe_ Renaissance the metaphysics, ignd this roman^f^|Kr-p ; riage- was ■ thefcource bpt .only 0 new physical synthesis, btit of th<f vast, material and economic progress modern worlaL'V He fromf Poincar* the following wtaafet . We have only to open our «y« to. ee'e;tlurt the. atunqTieiw which have enrlfched so maigr practical 'men, would never have Mfn tha day if- these praoticai men had been the only.pjißs.to exist, been preceded by diaiaterested' who\;di#d poor,- who n.j#v« vthoraW«i& the useful, but who were* nevertheless, guided by something mere'- than thai? r • Agftiri, : what; if* th«k If "the practical fluenocs the actions of men, B*. Thpna* Aquinas, the most famous q|i philosophers, must beofflie ■«£ thinkers; sphere. but in.v'that'^.^SWM^Bßi for his doctcineej. matto basis have had an ago-long millions of the Church of Borne, a influence is due to th» existence precedented confusion in so-called ot otor time arfc maJntipners, of philosophiest" such as pragmatism,* behaviourism, And the like.** These; (pi-philosophies-do the

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