of which the individual
scientist contributes the results of his special research; there being
_rival_ schools of mechanics, physics, or chemistry, only in so far as
_fundamental conceptions_ or _principles of orderly arrangement_ are in
question. But philosophy deals exclusively with the most fundamental
conceptions and the most general principles of orderly arrangement.
Hence it is significant of the very task of philosophy that there should
be many tentative systems of philosophy, even that each philosopher
should project and construct his own philosophy. Philosophy as the truth
of synthesis and reconciliation, of comprehensiveness and coordination,
must be a living unity. It is a thinking of entire experience, and can
be sufficient only through being all-sufficient. The heart of every
philosophy is a harmonizing insight, an intellectual prospect within
which all human interests and studies compose themselves. Such knowledge
cannot be delegated to isolated co-laborers, but will be altogether
missed if not loved and sought in its indivisible unity. There is no
modest home-keeping philosophy; no safe and conservative philosophy,
that can make sure of a part through renouncing the whole. There is no
philosophy without intellectual temerity, as there is no religion
without moral temerity. And the one is the supreme interest of thought,
as the other is the supreme interest of life.

[Sidenote: Progress in Philosophy. The Sophistication or Eclecticism of
the Present Age.]

Sect. 197. Though the many philosophies be inevitable, it must not be
concluded that there is therefore no progress in philosophy. The
solution from which every great philosophy is precipitated is the
mingled wisdom of some latest age, with all of its inheritance. The
"positive" knowledge furnished by the sciences, the refinements and
distinctions of the philosophers, the ideals of society--these and the
whole sum of civilization are its ingredients. Where there is no single
system of philosophy significant enough to express the age, as did the
systems of Plato, Thomas Aquinas, Descartes, Locke, Kant, Hegel, and the
others who belong to the roll of the great philosophers, there exists a
_general sophistication_, which is more elusive but not less
significant. The present age--at any rate from its own stand-point--is
not an age of great philosophical systems. Such systems may indeed be
living in our midst unrecognized; but historical perspective cannot