An Introduction to Philosophy

E-text prepared by Al Haines
Professor of Philosophy in Columbia University New York
New York The MacMillan Company London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd.
1915
Norwood Press J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
As there cannot be said to be a beaten path in philosophy, and as Introductions to the subject differ widely from one another, it is proper that I should give an indication of the scope of the present volume.
It undertakes:—
1. To point out what the word philosophy is made to cover in our universities and colleges at the present day, and to show why it is given this meaning.
2. To explain the nature of reflective or philosophical thinking, and to show how it differs from common thought and from science.
3. To give a general view of the main problems with which philosophers have felt called upon to deal.
4. To give an account of some of the more important types of philosophical doctrine which have arisen out of the consideration of such problems.
5. To indicate the relation of philosophy to the so-called philosophical sciences, and to the other sciences.