Page:The Idealistic Reaction Against Science (1914).djvu/12



work must be regarded as a new edition rather than as a mere translation of my book, La Reazione idealistica contro la scienza, published in Italy in 1912, since I have subjected the whole of it to a process of revision with a view to improving it and adapting it to the British public. In the concluding chapter I have gathered together the constructive portions formerly scattered through the whole book, so as to give greater prominence to my personal point of view, which is a form of spiritualistic realism, and to make that view clearer. The outlines of a spiritualistic conception of the world sketched therein have already formed the subject-matter of three addresses given by me in the Philosophical Library of Palermo, founded by Dr. Giuseppe Amato Pojero, a true apostle of philosophy, the study of which he strives to further by both precept and practice. The line of thought adopted by me — that of the school of Francesco de Sarlo and his review, La Cultura filosofica, defends the rights of the scientific method and of natural reality against the facile denials of the neo-Hegelians. Idealism, which came into vogue in Italy after the decline of positivism, now appears to be on the wane, and the abuse of the dialectic method has resulted in such a confusion of ideas in mental sciences that Croce himself recently lifted his voice in protest against these exaggerations. It is now time to return