Fundamental Philosophy, Vol. 1 (of 2)

by Jaime Luciano Balmes

NEW YORK:
BILLIN & BROTHER, PRINTERS, XX NORTH WILLIAM ST.

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CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

	BOOK FIRST.
	ON CERTAINTY.
CHAPTER		PAGE
[I].	Importance and Utility of the Question of Certainty	3
[II].	True State of the Question	7
[III].	Certainty of the Human Race and Philosophical Certainty	14
[IV].	Existence of Transcendental Science in the Absolute Intellectual Order	24
[V].	Transcendental Science in the Human Intellectual Order cannot emanate from the Senses	32
[VI].	Transcendental Science.—Insufficiency of Real Truths	37
[VII].	The Philosophy of the Me cannot produce Transcendental Science	41
[VIII].	Universal Identity	56
[IX].	Universal Identity,—Continued	64
[X].	Problem of Representation: Monads of Leibnitz	67
[XI].	Problem of Representation examined	71
[XII].	Immediate Intelligibility	76
[XIII].	Representation of Causality and Ideality	83
[XIV].	Impossibility of Finding the first Principle in the Ideal Order	89
[XV].	The Indispensable Condition of all Human Knowledge.—Meansof perceiving Truth	92
[XVI].	Confusion of Ideas in Disputes on the Fundamental Principle 102
[XVII].	Thought and Existence.—Descartes' Principle	105
[XVIII].	The Principle of Descartes, continued.—His Method	111
[XIX].	Value of the Principle, I Think:—Its Analysis	118
[XX].	True Sense of the Principle of Contradiction.—Kant's Opinion	126
[XXI].	Does the Principle of Contradiction merit the Title of Fundamental; and if so, in what Sense	140
[XXII].	The Principle of Evidence	146
[XXIII].	The Criterion of Consciousness	151
[XXIV].	The Criterion of Evidence	157
[XXV].	The Objective Value of Ideas	163
[XXVI].	Can all Cognitions be reduced to the Perception of Identity?	171
[XXVII].	Continuation of the same subject	176
[XXVIII].	Continuation of the same subject	183
[XXIX].	Are there true Synthetic Judgments a priori in the Sense of Kant	188
[XXX].	Vico's Criterion	200
[XXXI].	Continuation of the same subject	212
[XXXII].	The Criterion on Common Sense	219
[XXXIII].	Error of Lamennais on Common Consent	230
[XXXIV].	Summary and Conclusion	253
	BOOK SECOND.
	ON SENSATION.
[I].	Sensation in Itself	249
[II].	Matter is incapable of Sensation	255
[III].	Sleep and Waking	263
[IV].	Relation of Sensations to an External World	267
[V].	An Idealist Hypothesis	273
[VI].	Is the External and Immediate Cause of Sensations a Free Cause?	276
[VII].	Analysis of the Objectiveness of Sensations	279
[VIII].	Sensation of Extension	283
[IX].	Objectiveness of the Sensation of Extension	287
[X].	Force of Touch to make Sensations Objective	293
[XI].	Inferiority of Touch compared with other Senses	296
[XII].	Can Sight alone give us the Idea of a Surface?	302
[XIII].	Cheselden's Blind Man	310
[XIV].	Can Sight give us the Idea of a Solid?	315
[XV].	Sight and Motion	319
[XVI].	Possibility of other Senses	324
[XVII].	Existence of New Senses	328
[XVIII].	Solution of Lamennais' Objection	333
	BOOK THIRD.
	EXTENSION AND SPACE.
[I].	Extension Inseparable from the Idea of Body	339
[II].	Extension not Perceptible as the Direct and Immediate Object of Sensations	345
[III].	Scientific Fruitfulness of the Idea of Extension	348
[IV].	Reality of Extension	357
[V].	Geometrical Exactness Realized in Nature	360
[VI].	Remarks on Extension	365
[VII].	Space.—Nothing	369
[VIII].	Descartes and Leibnitz on Space	375
[IX].	Opinion of those who attribute to Space a Nature distinct from Bodies	380
[X].	Opinion of those who hold Space to be the Immensity of God	382
[XI].	Fenelon's Opinion	386
[XII].	What Space consists in	391
[XIII].	New Difficulties	396
[XIV].	Another Important Consequence	400
[XV].	Illusion of Fixed Points in Space	403
[XVI].	Observations on Kant's Opinion	407
[XVII].	Inability of Kant's Doctrine to solve the Problem of thePossibility of Experience	415
[XVIII].	The Problem of Sensible Experience	418
[XIX].	Extension abstracted from Phenomena	421
[XX].	Are there Absolute Magnitudes?	427
[XXI].	Pure Intelligibility of the Extended World	432
[XXII].	Infinite Divisibility	436
[XXIII].	Unextended Points	439
[XXIV].	A Conjecture on the Transcendental Notion of Extension	442
[XXV].	Harmony of the Real, Phenomenal, and Ideal Orders	446
[XXVI].	Character of the Relations of the Real Order to the Phenomenal	450
[XXVII].	Whether every Thing must be in some Place	452
[XXVIII].	Contingency of Corporeal Relations	459
[XXIX].	Solution of two Difficulties	462
[XXX].	Passive Sensibility	466
[XXXI].	Possibility of a greater Sphere in active Sensibility	469
[XXXII].	Possibility of the Penetration of Bodies	480
[XXXIII].	A Triumph of Religion in the Field of Philosophy	483
[XXXIV].	Conclusion and Summing up	489
[Notes to Book First]		495
[Note to Book Second]		514
[Notes to Book Third]		517

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[INTRODUCTION.]

The following translation of the great work of the lamented James Balmes on Philosophy, was undertaken at my suggestion and recommendation, and thus far I hold myself responsible for it. I have compared a considerable portion of it with the original, and as far as I have compared it, I have found it faithfully executed. The translator appears to me to have rendered the author's thought with exactness and precision, in a style not inferior to his own.

I have not added, as was originally contemplated, any Notes to those of the author. To have done so, would have swelled the volumes to an unreasonable size, and upon further consideration, they did not seem to me to be necessary. They would, in fact, have been an impertinence on my part, and the reader will rather thank me for not having done it. The work goes forth, therefore, as it came from the hands of its illustrious author, with no addition or abbreviation, or change, except what was demanded by the difference between the Spanish and English idioms.