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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1903 Excerpt: ... Book III METAPHYSICAL PRINCIPLES CHAPTER VIII THE PHYSICAL WORLD Our empirical inquiry has been somewhat barren of result. Even the causal issue we have not been able to decide except hypothetically. Much less has any light been thrown upon the deeper question, why mind and body are associated at all. Indeed, this question now appears quite beyond the reach of empirical methods of investigation, while as regards the causal issue we have employed those methods in vain. Under these circumstances, the time seems to have arrived for the metaphysical inquiry announced at the beginning. Hitherto we have been operating with counters whose exact value was left undetermined: we have discussed the relation of mind and matter without knowing exactly what mind and matter are. We must now turn critically upon the conceptions that have answered our purpose thus far, and seek to make them adequate. It may be that an exact knowledge of what mind and matter are will help us to understand their relation. It is impossible not to recognize that certain metaphysical theories have a direct bearing on the problem. Thus most philosophers maintain that material objects have no existence apart from the mind. But, if the body exists only as a modification of the mind, the question of causal relations between them appears in a new light. Again, assuming that material objects exist as modifications of the mind, philosophers differ as to whether these modifications stand for realities outside. But, if they do, there must be such a reality corresponding to the body; and the problem passes into a fresh phase. Finally, in the issue between the three theories, everything depends on whether the mind itself is real and active. The capital defect of most discussions of the subject lies in the ...