In this sense of the word, it would be
in the highest degree arrogant to assume the title of philosopher, and
to pretend that we had reached the perfection of the prototype which
lies in the idea alone.
The mathematician, the natural philosopher, and the logician- how
far soever the first may have advanced in rational, and the two latter
in philosophical knowledge- are merely artists, engaged in the
arrangement and formation of conceptions; they cannot be termed
philosophers. Above them all, there is the ideal teacher, who
employs them as instruments for the advancement of the essential
aims of human reason. Him alone can we call philosopher; but he
nowhere exists. But the idea of his legislative power resides in the
mind of every man, and it alone teaches us what kind of systematic
unity philosophy demands in view of the ultimate aims of reason.
This idea is, therefore, a cosmical conception.*
*By a cosmical conception, I mean one in which all men necessarily
take an interest; the aim of a science must accordingly be
determined according to scholastic conceptions, if it is regarded
merely as a means to certain arbitrarily proposed ends.
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