Problems of the self : an essay based on the Shaw lectures given in the University of Edinburgh, March 1914 / by John Laird.

  • Laird, John, 1887-1946.
Date:
1917
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Problems of the self : an essay based on the Shaw lectures given in the University of Edinburgh, March 1914 / by John Laird. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    is all; and opportunities for knowledge are not knowledge. Indeed, for every one who contends that the self is not a fit subject for study, since it contains no mystery and involves no problems, there are many who maintain that it is useless to study it because it is the most inexplicable mystery in the world. ‘ One may understand the Cosmos but never the Ego: the Self is more distant than any star.’1 So Mr. Chesterton, and so, I do not doubt, many who agree with him, and many who do not. This extreme, however, is scarcely more likely to be true than the other. Mr. Chesterton himself does not scruple to maintain that while it is possible to understand causes and effects in our own persons it is never possible to understand them in a laboratory, and those who argue in his vein might easily bring forward plausible reasons for believing that the self is less mysterious than the multiplication table. There are problems of the Cosmos and special problems of the millions of Egos which, as Mr. Chesterton seems to forget, are included in it. And there are no a 'priori reasons which condemn in advance the attempt to solve such problems. Problems of the self are on the same footing, in this respect, as others in philosophy. A philosophy can never be judged by its fruits, and therefore it is unwise to raise the question what fruit it can be expected to bear. No philosophical discussion, except one of a very limited scope, can hope for finality or maturity. But if there is no season of harvest in philosophy, there is at least the possibility of perpetual growth. A philo¬ sopher is like an explorer. He never knows his luck. If there is something to be discovered, after all he may find it. If he fails he may at least inform others that certain routes are impracticable or require better equipment. There is need for the venture 1 G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy.