willingness to be enlightened. Many a bitter and fruitless quarrel
might be avoided, if more persons found it possible to maintain this
philosophical attitude of mind. Philosophy is, after all, reflection,
and the reflective man must realize that he is probably as liable to
error as are other men. He is not infallible, nor has the limit of
human knowledge been attained in his day and generation. He who
realizes this will not assume that his neighbor is always wrong, and he
will come to have that wide, conscientious tolerance, which is not
indifference, but which is at the farthest remove from the zeal of mere
bigotry.




CHAPTER XXIII

WHY WE SHOULD STUDY THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY

83. THE PROMINENCE GIVEN TO THE SUBJECT.--When one reflects upon the
number of lecture courses given every year at our universities and
colleges on the history of philosophy, one is struck by the fact that
philosophy is not treated as are most other subjects with which the
student is brought into contact.

If we study mathematics, or chemistry, or physics, or physiology, or
biology, the effort is made to lay before us in a convenient form the
latest results which have been attained in those sciences. Of their
history very little is said; and, indeed, as we have seen (section 6),
lectures on the history of the inductive sciences are apt to be
regarded as philosophical in their character and aims rather than as