Excerpt from Kant and Spencer: A Study of the Fallacies of Agnosticism
Modern philosophy begins with Kant because Kant broke with the traditional Dogmatism and supplanted it by Criticism. He proposed the new plan of building doctrines upon the firm ground of experience. Kant was the first positivist in the sense that all philosophy must be based upon facts. How strange that in France and England his views were misunderstood by those who endeavored to progress along the same lines! Auguste Comte denounced Kant as an antiquated metaphysician and Herbert Spencer looks upon him as the champion of medi?valism and dogmatism. The truth is that neither the former nor the latter knew anything of Kant and so wasted their powder without demolishing their enemy but they did a great deal of harm by leading the public astray and perverting the real issues. They themselves failed in their main aspirations; neither Comte nor Spencer succeeded in proposing a scientific philosophy; both ended in agnosticism, which is practically a declaration of philosophical bankruptcy.
The merits of both Comte and Spencer cannot be underrated; both did good work in collecting and systematising material, - the former, a mathematical genius, in a truly scientific manner, the latter as a populariser. Comte became better acquainted with Kant in bis advanced age and regretted deeply that he had misunderstood the trend of his thought, because he thus missed the benefit of his wholesome influence.
I do not say that it is necessary to be a Kantist in any sense; but to be a leader of thought, a leader that leads onward and forward, it is indispensable to understand Kant. Mr. Spencer"s attitude toward Kant has remained disdainful and even hostile.
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