PHILOSOPHY TO-DAY

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22464, 27 July 1938, Page 4

PHILOSOPHY TO-DAY

IDEALISTS AND REALISTS IN BRITAIN DR. T. GREENWOOD’S ADDRESS The four main characteristics cf contemporary British philosophy were individualism, a system based on experience, a dislike of synthetic methods, and optimism, according to Dr T Greenwood, lecturer in logic at 'Birkbeck College, University of London, in an address at Canterbury University College last evening. Of the various schools of philosophy, there were two formidable ones in Britain, said Dr. Greenwood. These were the idealists and the realists: the former asserted that the mind was the source, principle, and measure of all things, and that there was nothing external which controlled it; but the realists said that there were things not dependent on the mind. "The main problem of philosophy is to try to give some systematic vievv* of the universe, including man and his actions.” said Dr. Greenwood. “We must know how we know, for, after all, there is always someone who knows and something that is known. To the idealist, the relation between the two latter is purely internal, while to the realist what is known in sense experience does not depend on the mind of the knower. Prominent among the idealists are Professor A. C. Bradley, Sir James Jeans, and Sir Arthur Eddington, and among the realists Bertrand Russell, Professor G. E. Moore, Professor A, N. Whitehead, and Lloyd Morgan. “The results attained by British philosophers do not always equal their seriousness of purpose,” said Dr. Greenwood, “and I think that this seriousness will became more marked in the younger generation, because philosophy is being used by nations for political purposes. In totalitarian States, for example, it is necessary for leaders to justify their teachings, and for this they turn to philosophy. “The idealist theory of the state leads to extreme totalitarianism, and this is perhaps why realists feel justified in keeping away from idealism. Contemporary British philosophy, in brief, tends to take itself very seriously. There was a time when British philosophy was non-existent; but it is now a strong force, and philosophers of other nations respect it greatly.”