ABSTRACT
The writer, F. H. Bradley, on metaphysics has a great deal against him. Engaged on a subject which more than others demands peace of spirit, even before he enters on the controversies of his own field, he finds himself involved in a sort of warfare. Metaphysical knowledge, it insists, "may be possible theoretically, and even actual, if you please, to a certain degree; but, for all that, it is practically no knowledge worth the name". And this objection may be rested on various grounds. e may agree, perhaps, to understand by metaphysics an attempt to know reality as against mere appearance, or the study of first principles or ultimate truths, or again the effort to comprehend the universe, not simply piecemeal or by fragments, but somehow as a whole. The chapter discusses philosophy as a satisfaction of what may be called the mystical side of our nature- a satisfaction which, by certain persons, cannot be as well procured otherwise.
