Introduction to the Theory of Science and Metaphysics

Excerpt from Introduction to the Theory of Science and Metaphysics

Professor Riehl's book on Philosophical Criticism has made a deep impression on philosophical thinkers in Germany; a second edition of the original work is already called for, and parts of it have been republished in a Russian translation. Even after the careful and thorough review of the book by Professor Adamson, in Mind, January 1889, I find that it is not generally known to English and American readers, so that I believe its usefulness will be materially increased by a translation into English. The original work consisted of three parts. The first, entitled "History and Method of Philosophical Criticism," gives a history of the critical method as used in turn by Locke, Hume, and Kant. The second part discusses the sense basis of experience, sensation, space and time, and perception, and also the logical principles of scientific experience: namely, the principle of identity, causality, and the categories of substance and force. The third part, of which the present work is a translation, discusses the problems of the general theory of science, and problems of metaphysics, from the standpoint of the critical philosophy.

It is idle to expect that any discussion of such problems will command complete assent from the reader, any more than from the translator, but the treatment in the present volume seems to me to shed much light on some problems that are widely discussed to-day, and to open certain problems anew which we have too hastily settled.

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