a reasonable belief is the
"philosophical idealism" which directly contradicts it; and the
greatest reform needed in modern thought, above all in the theory of
ethics, is the substitution of the scientific method for the
idealistic method in philosophy itself.

The cause of philosophical reform, indeed, cannot be long delayed by
any Philistinism in those who, by their professional position, ought
to be its most ardent friends. The method of science is destined to
revolutionize philosophy--to modernize it by founding it anew upon a
thoroughly realistic and scientific theory of universals. The net
result of all the physical sciences thus far, the one fixed result to
which all their other results steadily point with increasingly evident
convergence, is that _the already known constitution of the real
universe is that of the Machine_. This universal fixed result, and not
mere individual self-consciousness, is the necessary and only
beginning-point of a constructive philosophy of Nature; for, where the
special sciences end, there universal philosophy must begin. It is the
task of philosophy to-day to show that the unquestionably mechanical
constitution of the universe, instead of being the ultimate boundary
of scientific investigation, is merely the starting-point in a new
series of investigations, no less scientific than those of physical
science, but far more profound; and to show that the mechanical
constitution itself, when deeply studied and comprehended, necessarily
involves the organic and the personal constitutions. In this way, and
I believe in no other way, can it be proved to the satisfaction of the
modern intelligence that the Mechanical Real itself, at bottom,
includes the Ethical Ideal--that the Moral Law, the Divine Ideal
itself, is the innermost Fact of Nature. I have made, and make now,
not the slightest personal "pretension"; but, finding in all my
reading no outline of any such argument as this, and believing it to
be fruitful of the very noblest results, I have done my best to point
out its possibilities to other earnest searchers after truth. Not
until this new field has been faithfully examined and explored and
proved to be sterile, shall I cease to recommend it to the attention
of all who would fain _see reason_ to believe that the Ethical Ideal
is no Unreality, but rather the innermost Reality of the real universe
itself. I speak only to those who have souls to hear and to respond;
let the rest liste