Page:Philosophical Review Volume 18.djvu/63

49 of the work in hand, no longer contending for its existence or its place in the family of the sciences. This pleasant consciousness was promoted by the circumstances of the meeting: by the agreeable surroundings, by the sympathy of many not philosophers by profession, by the momentum acquired in so large a gathering of scholars through the fact of their collective work. To the writer, however, the spirit seemed deeper grounded than in any incidental causes. It is evident that the crisis which began in the middle of the last century is passing. Philosophers feel less strongly the need for defending their type of thought, because, as a matter of fact, its position is more firmly established, and because it is accomplishing its work for the age. In particular, it has well begun its labors in digesting the enormous material handed over to it by the sciences of physical nature and in grappling with the non-philosophical or mechanical views of the world developed from scientific premises. This was shown in the work of the Congress itself.

A second agreeable feature was the consciousness that philosophy has a mission in connection with the culture of the age. At this point the Anglo-Saxon members of the Congress felt themselves upon familiar ground. It seemed a continuance of the best elements in our own tradition to have emphasis laid upon the work which philosophy may do in furthering the progress of civilization; and this not merely in so far as culture is made up of intellectual factors, but also in that it is 'practical' and contains elements of 'life.' Here again, it may be added, a sign was given of renewed vitality on the part of our science and a proof that its work is in process of accomplishment. For philosophy to bear its part in the transformation of modern culture, for it to contribute to the solution of the problems with which modern states are grappling at the moment, or which their leaders perceive in the way before them, for it to share in the discussions of political and social questions as well as to influence the forms of later thinking or the progress of education, are tasks worthy of the best days of its history. And a philosophy which recognizes the duty laid upon it by these, its general relations, and which is busy with the labors which they suggest, is a philosophy which is viable, since it is at work.