The doctrine of the self in the philosophy of James Bissett Pratt

121 Pages·05.359 MB·English

by  Morey, Donald Franklin

THE DOCTRINE OP THE SELF IN THE PHILOSOPHY
OF JAMES BISSETT PRATT
A Thesis
Presented to
The Faculty of the Department of Philosophy
The University of Southern California
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Master of Arts
by
Donald Franklin Morey
February 1950
UMI Number: EP62743
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under the guidance of AJLS... Faculty Committee,
and approved by all its members, has been
presented to and accepted by the Council on
Graduate Study and Research in partial fulfill­
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Qy.
Date... EebruarjJ....19.5.Q.*__
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TABLE DP CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. GENESIS OF THE PROBLEM.......................... 1
Introduction, History of the Problem......... 1
Anaximenes, Democritus....................... 2
Pythagoras and the soul..................... 4
Platonism................... • .............. 6
Aristotelianism . . . . ................. 7
Aquinism and the soul . . . . . . ........... « 11
Averrhoes and Arabian Aristotelianism . . . . 11
Individuality in Aquinas, Summary. . . . . . 13
The revolt against Aquinism................. 14
Descartes and the search for basic
principles.................................. 15
Descartes and the method of doubt..... 17
Descartes and the soul substance theory . . . 18
The antithesis, Pascal, Summary and
Conclusion.................................. 19
II. THE MODERN PERIOD......................... 21
The world of Descartes, Galileo, Spinoza. . • 21
British reaction, Berkeley, Locke . ........ 22
The insufficiency of Hume’s analysis. ♦ . . . 23
The Kantian reaction. • » . • » • . . . » » . 25
The •object*1 of perception.................. 25
i v
CHAPTER page
The unity of consciousness* * 27
Kantfs transcendental synthesis . . . . . . . 28
Hegel and the rationalistic solution* . . . . 30
Two nineteenth century forces--naturalism,
idealism • • • • • • • • • • • . • • • . . 30
Darwin and Spencer in America ......... 31
The philosophy of speculative insight--
Jamesian reaction..................... . . 32
Roots of evolutionary naturalism............ 33
The significance of Darwin. .............. 34
The development of Darwinism. .... 35
Fiske and evolutionary naturalism........... 37
Conclusion • 37
III. JAMES BISSETT PRATT: BIOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUNDS. 39
Pratt’s early years . . . . . . ............. 39
The influence of his mother................. 40
Pratt’s most obvious concerns • • • • . • • • 41
Main influences at Harvard................... 43
The tone of mysticism in Pratt . 44
The four major influences............... 44
The struggle between idealism and realism . • 46
The notion of ’’transcendence11 in Pratt. . . . 47
The religious aspect in experience. . . . . . 49
Summary and conclusion. • • • • • • • • • • • 50
V
CHAPTER PAGE
IV. THE REALISTIC ARGUMENT. . ................. 51
Elaboration of epls.temological dualism. . . . 51
The mediatory nature of perception........... 52
Dualism* s theory of "truth” .......... 53
The "correspondence" theory................. 55
Montague1 s criticism.......................... 57
Strong and the notion of "immediacy11......... 58
The roots of realism. .............. 59
Historic aspects of the perceptual analysis . 60
The psychological cue. for realism . . . . . . 61
The significance of the percept............. 63
The rejection of epistemological monism . . . 64
Conclusion................... 65
V. DOCTRINE OP THE SELF........................... 69
Three types of soul theory. ............... 69
The fusion, of "substance” and "subject”
conceptions................................ 70
The definition of "substance"............... 71
Relation of the "self" to time............... 74
Definition of temporal r elation............ 74
Knowledge of the "self".............. 75
Selfhood as an achievement................... 77
Volition as a key to the "self” ............. 78
Influence of McDougall................. 79
Vi
CHAPTER PAGE
The seven arguments from meaning. . . . . . . 80
The analysis of meaning ............... 82
Conclusion • • . • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 85
VI. THE IMPLICATIONS OP. SELFHOOD................... 87
The implication of immortality......... 87
The implication of meaning...... . 88
The implication of immanent purpose. 89
The implication of man’s unique nature. . . . 90
The implication of purpose in human life. . ♦ 91
Comparison with Lotze ................. .. . 92
Roots of the doctrine in Hindu philosophy . . 94
The main question in Pratt’s philosophy . . . 96
VII. THE FRUITS OF REALISM: CRITICAL CONCLUSION . . 97
The confusion in critical realism.......... 97
The definition of empiricism. .......... 98
The possibility of a science of man . . . . . 100
The inadequacy of the epistemological-
metaphysical distinction 101
11 Detachment” and "objectivity”................. 102
The struggle between east and west meta­
physics ............ • • • •
The struggle to retain individuality........... 105
Summary— the search for a balance............. 106
vil
CHAPTER PAGE
Realism reaches maturity--conclusion. . . . . 107
BIBLIOGRAPHY................................... 109
CHAPTER I
GENESIS OP THE PROBLEM
Were a defense of the subject matter of this paper
demanded, it might well take the form of a justification
for the whole field of philosophy* The history of phil­
osophy, it seems safe to assert, could be written in rela­
tion to the problem of the "self." The life work of James
BIssett Pratt was, in no small measure, directed toward
this constant and timeless problem in modern thought and
the forces of the personal versus the impersonal, the objec­
tive as over against the subjective, the. act versus the
actor, the mental versus the physical, have been battling
with renewed vigor since the turn of the present century*
Although the problem before us is as old as philosophy, the
genesis of it forms one of the scantily surveyed fields of
human endeavor* This is so, doubtless, because man's
awareness of his nature is tied up with the act of cognition
between experience on the one hand and reflection on the
other* We know very little about the beginnings of the more
sophisticated modes of thinking* We may, however, not be
far wrong in asserting that nature was the foil against
which man was suddenly shocked into self-awareness. Windel-
band states,
2
In order to turn the look of philosophy inward
and make human action the object of its study,
there was first need, for one thing, of subse­
quent reflection upon what had, and what had not,
been accomplished by this study of Nature, and,
for another thing, of the imperious demands made
by public life on science now so far matured as
to be a social factor.^
One of those things found not to have been accomplished by
the study of nature was man. The anthropological period of
Greek history reflects an attempt to deal with this problem,
but not before much had already been done by the way of
breaking ground, on the part of the early Milesians and
Ionians.
The Greeks have given us several theories of the soul,
or self, as present day thought names it. Anaximenes, in
2
many respects following primitive notions, retained the
notion of ,fairft as the soul. At this time breath was Identi­
fied with air and breath was the very nature of soul.
Therefore, air was soul. It was the unitary principle which
also performed the function of holding the cosmos together.
Perhaps we should call to mind the fact that this is a
rather materialistic notion of soul. It is a physical
principle rather than a spiritual force; yet the world for
Anaximenes is a living, breathing thing and he wants, like
1
Wilhelm Windelband, History of Philosophy (New York:
The Macmillan Co., 1921), p. 25.
2
James Burnham and Phillip Wheelwright, Philosophical
Analysis (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1952), p. 305.