Present Status of the Philosophy of Society: A Treatise Designed to Show the Insufficiency of Existing Systems of Thought Concerning the Phenomena of Society, and the Tendencies Toward a Larger System; Being Part of a Series Comprising a Complete Review, Historical and Critical, of the Progress of Thought in Social Philosophy ...C.S. Westcott & Company, 1866 - 332 pages |
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action advance already Anglo-Saxon appertains asserted Astronomy attained Buckle causes Chalmers chapter character comprehensive Comte and Spencer condition of mankind Confucius considered constitution Copernican idea Cousin destiny determine the social direction discerned disquisition distinctly eminent thinkers emphatically error evil existing expedient expressed extent fundamental ideas grand Guizot Hallam Henry James Herbert Spencer History hitherto human mind human society illustration important individual over society influence intellectual J. S. Mill John Stuart Mill justice justly labor laws of nature least less Maistre Malthusian manifest ment merely moral nation NATURAL ENVIRONMENT observations organism phenomena Philoso Philosophy of Society Political Economy practical precisely present Principia Mathematica principles proper proposition question race reasonings regard remark respect rightly says scientific Sismondi social condition Social Philosophy Social Statics Sociology superficial system of thought tendency tion true philosopher truth universal valuable world of thought
Popular passages
Page 122 - The poorest man may in his cottage bid defiance to all the forces of the Crown. It may be frail; its roof may shake : the wind may blow through it; the storms may enter, the rain may enter - but the King of England cannot enter ! All his forces dare not cross the threshold of the ruined tenement.
Page 112 - We call that fire of the black thunder-cloud 'electricity,' and lecture learnedly about it, and grind the like of it out of glass and silk: but what is it? "What made it? Whence comes it? Whither goes it? Science has done much for us ; but it is a poor science that would hide from us the great deep sacred infinitude of Nescience, whither we can never penetrate, on which all science swims as a mere superficial film. This world, after all our science and sciences, is still a miracle ; wonderful, inscrutable,...
Page 222 - On the one hand, we have the human mind obeying the laws of its own existence, and, when uncontrolled by external agents, developing itself according to the conditions of its organization. On the other hand, we have what is called Nature, obeying likewise its laws; but incessantly coming into contact with the minds of men, exciting their passions, stimulating their intellect, and therefore giving to their actions a direction which they would not have taken without such disturbance.
Page 26 - He has so intimately connected, so inseparably interwoven the laws of eternal justice with the happiness of each individual, that the latter cannot be attained but by observing the former; and if the former be punctually obeyed, it cannot but induce the latter.
Page 108 - Of all the vulgar modes of escaping from the consideration of the effect of social and moral influences in the human mind, the most vulgar is that of attributing the diversities of conduct and character to inherent natural differences.
Page i - How small of all that human hearts endure, That part which laws or kings can cause or cure.
Page 263 - ... internal modifications of which this increased knowledge is the expression. Social progress is supposed to consist in the produce of a greater quantity and variety of the articles required for satisfying men's wants; in the increasing security of person and property; in widening freedom of action; whereas, rightly understood, social progress consists in those changes of structure in the social organism which have entailed these consequences.
Page 205 - The certainty of what each individual ought to pay is, in taxation, a matter of so great importance, that a very considerable degree of inequality, it appears, I believe, from the experience of all nations, is not near so great an evil as a very small degree of uncertainty.
Page xx - I have protracted my work till most of those whom I wished to please have sunk into the grave; and success and miscarriage are empty sounds. I therefore dismiss it with frigid tranquillity, having little to fear or hope from censure or from praise.
Page 127 - For, as we have already seen, the adaptation of man's nature to the conditions of his existence, cannot cease until the internal forces which we know as feelings are in equilibrium with the external forces they encounter. And the establishment of this equilibrium, is the arrival at a state of human nature and social organization, such that the individual has no desires but those which may be satisfied without exceeding his proper sphere of action, while society maintains no restraints but those which...