for an immortal spirit (if such there be); a task every moment of which has its perils and its zest, its despair and its hope. If one desires an easy, vegetable existence, it is doubtless better to abstain (as much as possible) from thinking, and to enter the whole of philosophy on the Index Expurgatorius. But if one aspires to truth, or goodness, or beauty, one must think. Such are the wonder and curiosity of the mind that it is only by extirpating whole areas of human nature, that is by spiritual suicide, that one can live without thinking about problems which are essentially philosophical.
Indeed, we might go further and say that every human being has a philosophy, such as it is; for every one entertains some opinions about the meaning—or meaninglessness—of his experience. It would be over-flattering to say that every one is more or less of a philosopher; for there is a great gulf fixed between the holding of philosophical opinions and the genuine philosophical spirit which holds no opinion that it has not earned a right to hold by intellectual
work. Nevertheless the unreasoned opinions of crude popular dogmatism, as well as the thoughtful conclusions of the skilled reasoner, are a tribute to what Schopenhauer has called “Man’s need of metaphysics,” and tend to prove the point, that, while all human philosophy is imperfect, human
nature obstinately refuses to abandon the philosophical quest for truth. The imperfection of our system cannot quench the philosophical spirit.
§ 5. philosophy as a spirit or method
It is clear from what has been said that philosophy does not consist in the holding of a certain set of opinions, or even in the possession of a certain body of knowledge. Every
