The Divine Lamp

Article 1

Origin of the so-called Scottish School

99.  I have deemed it advisable to dwell somewhat at length on the system of Condillac, because this system still enjoys some favor in Italy.  Not that it can be said to be the most conformable to the way of thinking of this nation, which, on the whole has kept itself more free from the systematic and exaggerated spirit of modern times than has been the case with other nations.

100.  The system of Condillac is, in reality, nothing but that of Locke transplanted into French soil.  The slight modifications which the latter system may have undergone in France since the time of Condillac-those additions of heterogeneous matter which only confuse and disguise the inquiries on the operation of the soul: such as things pertaining to medicine, anatomy, and chemistry-need not be noticed here, since they do not offer any new explanation of the origin of ideas.

101.  In England the philosophy of Locke was dealt with by much more acute minds than in France: I mean, by such thinkers as Berkeley and Hume, who with the dauntless courage pushed it to its last consequences-namely, to Idealism and to Skepticism; took away the foundations of all the sciences, and, in effect, asked that human nature should consent to doubt its own existence.

102.   Consequences so startling, and the dismal project of an abyss where, first the material, and then the spiritual world, together with man himself, would be swallowed up and annihilated, could not fail to arouse a strong intellectual reaction.  Earnest men began, therefore, to ask themselves whether the great facility with which the sensation-system had been accepted, and the popular favor so freely lavished on it, might not, after all, have been due to inconsiderate haste in assuming its principles as self-evident, when in reality they were pregnant with grave error.  Accordingly, a searching scrutiny was instituted into all its premisses, and clear positive proof demanded for each of those which, without being necessarily self-evident, seemed nevertheless true at first sight, that it might thus be discovered where lay the fatal error-if such there were-that inevitably issued in such terrible conclusions.  In short, it was human nature which entered its protest against the dominant philosophy, and which, seeing itself brought by a false guide to the very brink of the abyss, shrank back with horor, for no other reason than that it could not possibly proceed further.

     When, therefore, the irresistable force of nature, combined with the promptings of common sense, had made men feel that that philosophy could not be true, because irreconcilable with human nature, then there arose in Scotland a new school, which, taking the common sense of mankind for its guide, proposed never to deviate from it, and not to make use of the individual reason except for explaining its pronouncements.

103.  These new philosophers saw the impossibility of attacking the conclusions which Berkeley and Hume had drawn from the principles of Locke, those conclusions being deduced with a force of logic which admitted of no reply.  Nothing remained but to re-examine the principles themselves, in order to find the real source of the latent error.  Having to deal with subtle adversaries, and being obliged to proceed with strict logical accuracy in their reasonings, it is no wonder that the Scottish philosophical reformers made so little account of the teachings, although then still popular, of Condillac.

    If I am not mistaken, Reid never quotes this author.  Dugald Stewart speaks of him generally with contempt, calling him a mere commentator of Locke, and one who has not so much as understood his master.  Of his philosophical style he writes as follows: “The clearness and simplicity of Condillac’s style add to the force of this illusion, and flatter the reader with an agreeable idea of the powers of his own understanding when he finds himself so easily conducted through the darkest labyrinths of metaphysical science.  It is to this cause I would chiefly ascribe the great popularity of his works.  They may be read with as little exertion of thought as a history or a novel; and it is only when we shut the book, and attempt to express in our own words the substance of what we have gained, that we have the mortification to see our supposed acquisitions vanish into air” [Dissertation] - (Excerpted from THE ORIGIN OF IDEAS, Vol. 1, by Blessed Antonio Rosmini.  The work is in the public domain)