COURSE OF THE HISTORY

OF

MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

BY M. VICTOR COUSIN.

TRANSLATED BY O. W. WIGHT.

IN TWO VOLUME S.

VOL. I.

EDINBURGH:

T. & T. CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET.
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ODLY

Subject of the first lecture:-That philosophy is a special want and a neces-

sary product of the human mind.-Enumeration of the fundamental wants

of the human mind, of the general ideas which govern its activity: 1st,

Idea of the useful, mathematical, and physical sciences, industry, political

economy: 2d, Idea of the just, civil society, the State, jurisprudence: 3d,

Idea of the beautiful, art: 4th, the idea of God, religion, worship: 5th,

Of reflection, as the foundation of philosophy.-Philosophy, the last de-

velopment of thought.-Its true character in the nineteenth century 13

LECTURE II.

PERPETUITY OF PHILOSOPHY.

Subject of this lecture:-Verification by history of the results obtained by

psychology. Has philosophy had an historical existence, and what has

this existence been?-1st, The East.-Birth of philosophy. 2d, Greece

and Rome.-Development of philosophy.-Socrates. 3d, Middle age.—

Scholasticism. 4th, Modern philosophy.-Descartes. 5th, Actual con-

dition of philosophy.-View of the future.-Conclusion: That philosophy

has not been wanting to any epoch of humanity; that its importance has

increased from epoch to epoch; and that its tendency is to become, with-

out ceasing, a more considerable portion of history
27

LECTURE III.

HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY.

Recapitulation of the last two lectures. A word upon the method employ-

ed.-Subject of this Lecture:-Application to the history of philosophy,

of what has been said of philosophy. 1st, That the history of philosophy

is a real element of universal history, like the history of legislation, of

arts, and of religions. 2d, That the history of philosophy is clearer than

all other parts of history, and that it contains their explanation. Logical

demonstration. Historical demonstration. Explanation of Indian civil-

ization by philosophy: Bhagavad-Gita. Greece: Explanation of the age

of Pericles by the philosophy of Socrates. Modern history: Explanation

of the sixteenth century by the philosophy of Descartes. Explanation of

the eighteenth century by the philosophy of Condillac and of Helvetius.

3d, That the history of philosophy comes last in the development of his-

torical labours, as philosophy is the last degree of the interior develop-

ment of the mind, and of the movement of an epoch.-Relation of the

history of philosophy to general history.-Favourable situation of our age

for the history of philosophy

LECTURE IV.

OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL METHOD IN HISTORY.

44

That the history of philosophy is at the same time special and general.—Of

the qualities of an historian of philosophy. Of the love of humanity.-Of

the historical method. Two methods. Empirical method: which is al-

most impracticable, and cannot give the reason of facts. Of the specu-

lative method.—Union of the two methods in one, which, starting from

the human reason, from its elements, from their relations and their laws,

would seek their development in history. The result of such a method

would be the harmony of the interior development of reason with its his-

torical development, the harmony of philosophy with its history.-Appli-

cation of this method. Three points that the method should embrace:

1st,. The complete enumeration of the elements of reason; 2d, Their re-

duction; 3d, Their relation.-Historical antecedents of this research. Aris-

totle and Kant. Vices of their theory: 1st, Enumeration of the elements of

reason; 2d, Reduction to two, unity and variety, identity and difference;

absolute being, relative being, the absolute cause and the relative cause,

the infinite and the finite; 3d, Their relation.-Contemporaneousness of

the two essential ideas of reason in the order of their acquisition.—

Superiority and priority of the one over the other in the order of nature.

-Necessary coexistence of the two, and generation of the one by the

other.-Recapitulation

LECTURE V.

FUNDAMENTAL IDEAS OF HISTORY.

58

Recapitulation. Ideas in human reason.-Ideas in the divine intelligence.

-Of the true character of the intelligence.-Reply to some objections.—

Passage of God into the universe. Of the creation.-Of the universe as

a manifestation of divine intelligence, and of the ideas which constitute

it. That these ideas pass into the world and produce harmony, beauty,

and goodness. Expansion and attraction, etc.-Humanity. Man a mi-

crocosm: psychology, universal science abridged.-Fundamental fact of

consciousness: three terms again, the finite, the infinite, and their rela-

tion. All men possess this fact; their only difference arises from the

predominance of such or such an element of this fact, according to the

degree of attention paid to it.-That it is the same with the human race.

Its identity is that of the three elements of consciousness of the human

race. The differences arise from the predominance of one of these over

the others. These differences constitute the different epochs of history. 73

LECTURE VI.

THE GREAT EPOCHS OF HISTORY.

Return to the fundamental fact of consciousness.-Distinction between the

form given to this fact by reflection, and its spontaneous form.-Charac-

ter of spontaneity.—It is in the spontaneity of reason that absolute inde-

pendence and the impersonality of rational truths are declared. Refuta-

tion of Kant.-Indentity of the human reason in the spontaneous percep-

tion of truth.-Reflection, element of difference.-Necessity and utility of

reflection.-History, condition of all development; time, condition of

time: succession, condition of succession: particularity, division, con-

tradiction; necessity and utility of all this.-The end of history.-Of true

perfectibility. That there are three great historical epochs, and that there

can be no more
108

LECTURE VII.

THE PLAN OF HISTORY.

Return to spontaneity and reflection in the individual and in the human

race. History: its epochs.-Three epochs, neither more nor less.-Order

of these three epochs.-Order of succession.-Order of generation.—Of

the plan of history, as the manifestation of the plan of Providence.-His-

torical optimism

LECTURE VIII.

THE PART OF GEOGRAPHY IN HISTORY.

125

Return to the historic system sketched in the last lecture. Method which

it gave. Beauty of history thus conceived; its morality; its scientific

character.-Unjust contempt expressed by philosophers for history. Re-

futation of Malebranche.--Rules of history. Fundamental rule: nothing

is insignificant; everything has a meaning; everything is related to

some idea.-Application of this rule to physical geography. Every place,

taken on a great scale, represents an idea, one of the three ideas to which

all ideas must be referred.—General question of the relation of places to

man.-Climates. Defence and explanation of the opinion of Montes-

quieu. Determination of places and climates which correspond with the

three great epochs of history

LECTURE IX.

NATIONS.

139

Subject of the lecture:-Philosophy of history applied to the study of na-

tions. Discarding the question of a primitive people.-Idea of a nation;

development of this idea in all the constituent elements of a nation, and

first, in industry, laws, art, and religion.-To seize the relations of these

elements to each other, their relations of anteriority or of posteriority, of

superiority or of inferiority, especially their harmony.-Philosophy, re-

flecting all the elements of a nation's civilization, is its last expression.—

The resemblances, and especially the differences of the various nations of

the same epoch.-The idea of war.-Motives for the celebrity of great

battles.-Morality of victory.-Historical importance of war, of the mili-

tary regulations of a people, even of the mode of warfare

LECTURE X.

GREAT MEN.

149

-Their ne-

Recapitulation of the last lecture. Subject of this:-Great men.--

cessity and their proper character.-Great men sum up nations, epochs,