A brief inquiry concerning human knowledge & belief: with some remarks upon the basis of physics, being a sequel to 'A general view of the materialistic philosophy', ed. [really written] by J. Hibbert1882 |
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abstract according action affections animals appears argument become beginning belief body cause changes clear conceive conceptions conclusion concrete connection consciousness constitution death demonstration dependent determined direction divine doctrine earth Egyptian elements equally evidence existence experience external facts faculties feelings final finite force functions future given gives higher highest human hypothesis ideas images immediate individual inference infinite intellectual intelligence interpret knowledge known language laws less light limited live logical lower material matter means mental mind moral nature never notions object observation operations organic organisation origin ourselves particular perceptions perfect phenomena philosophy physical Power present principle question reach reality reason recognise reflection relations religion religious rest result revelation scientific sensation sense separate spirit theory things thinking thought true truth understanding universe whole
Popular passages
Page 33 - Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make Our noisy years seem moments in the being Of the eternal Silence ; truths that wake, To perish never ; Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavour, Nor Man nor Boy, Nor all that is at enmity with joy, Can utterly abolish or destroy...
Page 33 - But for those first affections, Those shadowy recollections, Which, be they what they may, Are yet the fountain light of all our day, Are yet a master light of all our seeing ; Uphold us — cherish — and have power to make Our noisy years seem moments in the being Of the eternal silence ; truths that wake To perish never...
Page 32 - But for those obstinate questionings Of sense and outward things, Fallings from us, vanishings, Blank misgivings of a Creature Moving about in worlds not realised, High instincts before which our mortal nature Did tremble like a guilty thing surprised...
Page 21 - Virgil, as if a prophet or magician ; his single words and phrases, his pathetic halflines, giving utterance, as the voice of Nature herself, to that pain and weariness, yet hope of better things, which is the experience of her children in every time.
Page 16 - It is the cumulation of probabilities, independent of each other, arising out of the nature and circumstances of the particular case which is under review; probabilities too fine to avail separately, too subtle and circuitous to be convertible into syllogisms, too numerous and various for such conversion, even were they convertible.
Page 13 - That the sphere of our belief is much more extensive than the sphere of our knowledge ; and, therefore, when I deny that the Infinite can by us be known, I am far from denying that by us it is, must, and ought to be believed.
Page 13 - We are thus taught the salutary lesson, that the capacity of thought is not to be constituted into the measure of existence ; and are warned from recognising the domain of our knowledge as necessarily co-extensive with the horizon of our faith. And by a wonderful revelation, we are thus, in the very consciousness of our inability to conceive aught above the relative and finite, inspired with a belief in the existence of something unconditioned beyond the sphere of all comprehensible reality.* (2?)...
Page 13 - But reason itself must rest at last upon " authority ; for the original data of reason do not rest on " reason, but are necessarily accepted by reason on the " authority of what is beyond itself.
Page 12 - These, together, constitute the finite element. But at the same instant, when we are conscious of these existences, plural, relative, and contingent, we are conscious, likewise, of a superior unity in which they are contained, and by which they are explained ; — a unity absolute as they are conditioned, substantive as they are phenomenal, and an infinite cause as they are finite causes. This unity is GOD.
Page 16 - If language is an inestimable gift to man, the logical faculty prepares it for our use. Though it does not go so far as to ascertain truth, still it teaches us the direction in which truth lies, and how propositions lie towards each other.
Bibliographic information
| Title | A brief inquiry concerning human knowledge & belief: with some remarks upon the basis of physics, being a sequel to 'A general view of the materialistic philosophy', ed. [really written] by J. Hibbert |
| Author | James Hibbert |
| Published | 1882 |
| Original from | Oxford University |
| Digitized | 18 Jun 2007 |
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