Excerpt from Psychology and Natural Theology As between men, the prestige of an opponent lends no intrinsic value whatever to his argument. In the field of philosophy every individual's authority is worth only as much as his arguments. Arguments from authority are, perhaps, the weakest in all philosophy, wholly subsidiary and corroborative, of no weight with the wise, without prior and independent arguments based on the very nature of things; and the common consent of mankind is only a seeming exception to this rule. Psychology and Natural Theology, all the Metaphysics of Senior Year in Jesuit Colleges, are combined in the one volume; and this makes for economy as well as for convenience. Questions are thoroughly explained, without sending the pupil to other sources of information. The discussion of difficulties is unusually complete; and experience quite satisfies the author that nothing in all philosophy is more important than this solution of difficulties. It is virtually an application of the Case System to philosophy. The highest kind of knowledge, the only kind of knowledge really worth while, is certainty; and certainty is incompatible with concrete possibility of the opposite. Certainty is out of the question as long as any single opposing argument remains unanswered, no matter how many favorable arguments are urged in defense of a thesis or statement. Hence the supreme need of being able first to comprehend, and then to answer the arguments of opponents. All the matter is done into set and concise theses, and the Scholastic method of presentment is strictly adhered to. In religion a good Catholic can be nothing but a devoted son of the Church, and in philosophy he can be nothing but a thorough Scholastic, an enthusiastic follower of St. Thomas. Pope Leo XIII forever settled that. Religion was not improved by the so-called Reformation, and Luther himself on no few occasions adverts to the fact. Luther and the Reformers worked no more harm to faith and morality than Kant, with his forerunners and followers, worked to reason and philosophy. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.