Education and the Philosophical Ideal by Horatio W. Dresser - Read the Complete Text for free at NewThoughtLibrary.com

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Horatio W. Dresser's

Education and the Philosophical Ideal

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Preface - Introduction - The New Point of View - Educational Ideals - Equanimity - The Subconscious Mind - The Spiritual Ideal in Childhood - An Experiment in Education - The Expression of the Spirit - An Ideal Summer Conference - The Ministry of the Spirit - The Mystery of Pain and Evil - The Philosophical Ideal - The Criteria of Truth - Organic Perfection - Immortality - Index - p. 247

The failure of many metaphysicians to make a successful application of their speculations about life is doubtless due to this dogmatic clinging to an absolute point of view—in face of the fact that all our knowledge is concrete and relative. It is customary with theorists of this class to start with an artificially devised premise concerning absolute perfection, then, declaring that naught else exists, turn to the world of struggle and sorrow, and term it a "shadow," or the "absence of light." Consequently, it is a logical procedure to develop a system of abstract affirmations in order to disabuse the mind of its illusions, to declare that they are "errors" having no power.

The concrete philosopher begins with this present evolving world as he finds it, then asks what sort of Reality most exist in order to give rise to just this struggling mass of beings and things. The better he knows the world, the more knowledge he has of its laws, its evolution, and its ideals, the greater will be his knowledge of its logical cause. Only as he proceeds directly from the facts of the world back to the Cause immediately behind or within them can he hope to develop a sound theory of Reality. He knows nothing about Reality as an undifferentiated mass, a shoreless ocean of undisturbed peace. For him the cause of things is active in precisely these present conflicts through which humanity is being perfected. He knows Spirit only as accomplishing somewhat, as welling into manifestation through the rock, the unicellular organism, the

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