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

Divine Library is a free online public library that includes free eBook downloads and free audio books.

We work with New Thought Seekers and Sharers around the world insuring that all New Thought Texts in the Public Domain are available for you to read on the web for free, forever!

"Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit."
~ 2 Corinthians 2:17

Navigate through this book by clicking Next Page or Previous Page below the text of the page & jump directly to chapters using the chapter numbers above the text.

Serving New Thought is pleased to present

Horatio W. Dresser's

Education and the Philosophical Ideal

"Evolution is better than Revolution. New Thought Library's New Thought Archives encompass a full range of New Thought from Abrahamic to Vedic. New Thought literature reflects the ongoing evolution of human thought. New Thought's unique inclusion of science, art and philosophy presents a dramatic contrast with the magical thinking of decadent religions that promulgate supersticions standing in the way of progress to shared peace and prosperity." ~ Avalon de Rossett

Your PayPal contributions insure this gift lasts forever. Please consider an ongoing PayPal subscription.

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

radical empiricism of Professor James,¹ is always preferable to dogmatic or artificial monism, the assumption that "all is one" without rational evidence for this basic statement.

The philosopher delights in the construction of a theoretically perfect system of metaphysics—which convinces only himself. But as surely as metaphysics originated in the two-fold motive of truth for its own sake and truth for the sake of utility, so surely most the practical tendency be the critic of the speculative. The chid point of this chapter is that no wholly sound, merely speculative system of philosophy is possible. All speculative metaphysics most be supplemented by the higher spiritual insights and spontaneous experiences of the soul.

It has been argued again and again that reason is the only test of truth. But one may prove anything by argument and make it reasonable. Your logic may prove an event impossible: the next moment you may experience that which was declared impossible. I once heard the president of a university "prove" that thought transference could not possibly occur!

Common sense long ago adopted experience as a test of truth. In deepest truth, we know a principle to be sound only when we have applied it in actual life. Out of the concrete, all the data of reason have come; to the concrete, reason must again and again be applied to see if it adequately describes.

Experience contradicts, verifies, or modifies and

(1) The Will to Believe.

page scan

186

PREVIOUS PAGE - NEXT PAGE