The art of thought, my son, for which we are striving, is not pure and
abstract, but connected with practice, a practical theory, a theoretical
practice. It is not a separate and isolated thing, not a "thing in
itself," but is connected with all things; it has a universal
interrelation. Hence our logic, as we have repeatedly stated, is a
philosophy, world wisdom, and metaphysics. I include the latter, because
our logic excludes nothing, not even the transcendental. It teaches that
everything, even transcendentalism, if practiced with consciousness and
the necessary moderation, and at the right time and place, for instance
at the carnival, is a reasonable and sublime pleasure.
All prominent philosophers were explorers and users of the same art of
thought, of living, of viewing the world, although many of them retired
to the solitude and were ascetics. Can the world be understood in a
hermitage? Yes and no. After you have been traveling and seeing many
lands, it is well to retire and classify the impressions received, and
thus to reflect about a true philosophy of life. In this way, secluded
thought, in the relative meaning of the word, that is, in connection
with observation and experience, with enjoyment and life, is a veritable
savior. Body and soul belong together, and if they are separated, it
must be remembered that such a separation is a mere matter of form, that
they are in fact one thing, attributes of the same being which is
infinitely great, so great that all other beings are but its fringes.
The art of distinction distinguishes the infinite infinitely with the
consciousness that in reality everything is interrelated without
distinction and is one.
This truth, and thus absolute truth, is ignored by laymen and
professional authorities alike. The thousand year dualism between body
and soul has been especially instrumental in preventing the
understanding of the universal interrelation. The whole history of
philosophy is but a wrestling with the dualism between matter and mind.
It was only by degrees that it moved towards its monistic goal.
After the brilliant triple star Socrates-Plato-Aristotle was
extinguished, the philosophical sky was covered with dark clouds. The
heathens stepped from the stage, and Christianity and the dogmas of its
church predominated the logic of men, until at last a new scientific
light arose in the beginning of modern times. It was especially
Cartesius and Spinoza who were most brilliant among the early thinkers
that emancipated their minds slowly and under great difficulties.
Spinoza, of Jewish descent, is especially interesting in his fight
against narrowmindedness and for a universal philosophy. He wrote an
"Essay on the Improvement of the Intellect and on the Way by which it is
best led to a true Understanding of Things." He, as well as we, was
looking for the best way, the true way, the way of truth. He, as well as
we, seeks to study and practice the fundamentals of the art of thought.
He begins: "After experience has taught me that everything which the
ordinary life offers is vain, and I have seen that everything which I
feared is only good or bad in so far as the mind is moved by it, I
finally resolved to investigate whether there is any true good--whether
there is anything the discovery of which will forever secure continuous
and supreme joy. What is most generally found in life, and what mankind
regards as the highest good, may be reduced to three things, viz.,
wealth, honor, and sensual pleasure."
After Spinoza has then uncovered the shadowy side and the vanity of
these popular ideals, he calls them "unsafe by their very nature," while
he is looking for "permanent good," which is "insecure only as regards
its possession, but not in its nature."
But how is that to be found?
"Here I shall say shortly what I mean by true good, and what is at the
same time the highest good. In order to grasp this fully, we must
remember that good or bad are only relative terms, and thus the same
thing may be called good or bad according to its relations, or on the
other hand perfect or imperfect."
Spinoza, forestalling the object of his research, discovers that the
true, supreme and permanent good is the "understanding of the unity" of
the soul with the entire nature. "This then," he says, "is the goal
which I am coveting."
"To this end, we must study morals, philosophy, and the education of
boys, and combine with this study the entire science of medicine,
because health materially assists us in reaching our ideal. Neither must
mechanics be neglected, because many difficult things are made easy by
art. Above all we must strive to find a way for the improvement of the
intellect."
Here we have once more arrived at the pivotal point of our subject, my
dear disciple. Who or what is the intellect, whence does it come from,
whither does it lead? Answer: It is a light which does not shine within
itself, but throws rays outside of itself for the illumination of the
world. For this reason the science which has the faculty of
understanding for its object, though a limited, is at the same time a
universal science, a universal world wisdom.
But isn't it a contradiction that a special science wants to be general
world wisdom? Is not general wisdom that which comprises all knowledge,
all special science? Must I not know everything in order to be world
wise? And how can any single brain assume to acquire all knowledge, to
know everything? Answer: It is impossible for you to know everything;
but you can rise to the understanding that your special wisdom and that
of all others is a part of universal wisdom and form together a relative
whole which in connection with all the rest of the world constitute the
absolute being. This understanding represents pure logic and is
universal understanding, understanding of the universal being.
Do not be troubled by the fact that Socrates was looking for virtue and
the "best," or Spinoza for permanent and supreme joy, and that their
wisdom aimed only at the narrow circle of human life, without rising to
the cosmic interrelation. The means and the instrument by the help of
which they strive for their ideal is the intellect. It is quite natural
that intellectual research led to the study of the intellect, to the
"improvement of the intellect," to the "critique of reason," to "logic,"
and finally to the understanding that the faculty of thought is an
inseparable part of the monistic whole, of the absolute which lends
support, consistency, reason and sense to all thought.
On his exploring tour for the improvement of the intellect, Spinoza
picks up a remark which seems to me worthy of closer attention. He says
in so many words: If we are looking for a way to improve the intellect,
is it not necessary for the purpose of finding such a way to first
improve the intellect, in order to be at all able to discern the way
which leads to an improvement of the intellect, and so on without end?
"We must have a hammer to forge the iron, and in order to have a hammer,
it must be made; but for this purpose we need another hammer and other
instruments, and so forth without end. In this way it must not be proven
that men have no power to forge iron. Men have rather accomplished only
the easiest tasks with difficulty and imperfectly by the help of the
natural tools of their bodies. Gradually they accomplished more
difficult things with less labor and better. And thus they slowly
proceeded from the simplest tasks to the instruments."
I admire in this process of reasoning the brilliant understanding that
the hammer is not such a limited instrument as the untrained human brain
thinks. It thinks that a hammer is not a pair of tongs. But Spinoza says
that the bare fist is a hammer when used for striking, much more a stone
or a club. A pair of tongs used to drive a nail becomes a hammer; a
hammer which I use to draw a nail becomes a pair of tongs. Fist or club,
sense or nonsense, all is one. In other words, things are separated, but
never so far as the fantastical dreamers think. Just as hammer and
tongs, saw and file, are parts of the class of tools, so all things are
parts of the one and absolute universe. Recognize, then, dear Eugene,
that the relative and the absolute are not separated by such a
bridgeless chasm, that the one should be praised to the skies and the
other damned to the lowest pit. Understand that everything is
dialectically interrelated, that the infinite, eternal, divine, can live
only in the finite, special things, and that on the other hand the parts
of the world can exist only in the absolute. In short, raise your
conception to the universal conception, and at the same time, understand
the supreme being in all its parts instead of idolizing it.