『イギリス哲学の百年』

ここ二カ月ほど、ホブハウスの哲学的基礎と哲学史の中での位置づけについて勉強しています。その過程で、Rudolf Metzという人が70年前に書いた『イギリス哲学の百年』（初版は1938年）という本に出会いました。これが非常に分かりやすく、ホブハウス哲学の解説にもかなりのスペースが割かれていました。以下は、自分用の読書メモです。

A Hundred Years of British Philosophy (Muirhead Library of Philosophy)

理性の役割：The work of reason, or as Hobhouse says, of the rational impulse in man, consists in connecting together and organizing the single cognitions and separate experiences into one systematic all-inclusive structure of thought, the goal being that intellectual harmony in which the effort of the human mind comes to rest. … But maintaining these positions Hobhouse’s philosophy displays its widest divergence from its empiricist point of departure, and more and more appears to adopt the Anglo-Hegelian theory of truth… (p.162)

観念論と進化論の融合−ホブハウス実在論哲学の基礎−：Yet at the same time there is evident a characteristic difference between Hobhouse and the Hegelians. … He resolved the rigour and immutability of Bradley’s principle into the living movement of a process which he thought of as a genuine progress to continually higher synthesis and systematic structure… The way he attained this result―and here we come to an important nodal point in his philosophy―was by incorporating the notion of evolution with that of consilience [= the mutual dependence, interconnection, and reciprocal support of the single “members” of the cognitive whole, and their necessary relation to the total system (161)], and thereby forging into a unity the two fundamental principles of his thought. …Hobhouse’s philosophy presents itself accordingly as a realistically applied fusion of absolutist and evolutionary elements, with Empiricism as its starting-point. (162-163)

機械論と目的論の双方に基づく実在（Reality）：Mind is thus neither lord of all things, nor the chance by-product of mechanical forces, neither absolute nor epiphenomenon, but an organic impulse imposing order upon chaotic and recalcitrant elements and bringing the cosmic process into unity and harmony. The chief criterion of all spiritual or mental activity is to be found in rational purposiveness. The teleological principle takes its place alongside the mechanical, each comprising and presupposing the other, and each revealing reality under a special aspect. The fundamental conception of Hobhouse’s metaphysics consists in this interpretation of reality as neither merely mechanical nor merely teleological, but as both together, that is to say, as a process of development in which the two principles stand in a relation of close reciprocity, and are, so to speak, “interwoven”. (163-164)

認識論と形而上学の共通土台として有機体（Organism）という発想：The system of knowledge had already been shown to be such an organic structure, and now metaphysics shows that the system of reality is so likewise, the result being thus a complete harmony of correspondence between the two systems [=mechanism and teleology]. (164)

進化における精神(mind)の役割：Evolution is accomplished by the mechanical factors being continually more and more definitely thrust into the background as the purposive elements making for establishment of order continually gain ground. Its goal is the harmonious system which it is the teleological function of mind to bring about in the course of time. The mind (or spirit) pervading the universe is continually at work to accomplish, by however slow and gradual stages, the harmonization of conflicting elements. (165)

倫理学における功利主義と観念論、双方との関係：[Hobhouse’s] notion of harmony agrees with Utilitarian doctrine in so far as it comprises the general happiness as an integral component. On the other hand, Hobhouse adheres to Green’s criticism of Hedonism in his psychological analysis of the springs of action, and the sting of Hedonism having been removed from Utilitarianism, the principle of the greatest happiness of the greatest number becomes transformed into the postulate of the harmonious social whole. (167)