ABSTRACT
Idealism in the first sense appears to be indifferent to Cook Wilson’s distinction between logic and the sciences. The distinction is preserved, so long as the distinction between thought and its object is preserved. ‘Subjective idealism holds, that what is directly present to consciousness—what one is “immediately conscious of”—is something mental and indeed a state of the subject’s consciousness, and this is treated as something self-evident and merely to be taken for granted. Absolute idealism, on the other hand, though not making the object identical with subjective thought, appears to make it essentially a realization of thought.’ This distinction of logic from science is of great importance. Scientific thinking is essentially different from any kind of philosophical thinking and the common habit of calling logic a science, which results from defining science as methodical study in general, is to be deplored as obscuring one of the most vital distinctions in the field of knowledge.
