Schiller, Ferdinand Canning Scott
Schiller, Ferdinand Canning Scott
(1864-1937), unwilling to accept the idealism current at Oxford in his day on grounds that it was “absolutist”, sought by a metaphysical pluralism not only to account for the unity and multiplicity of things, but also to furnish the basis for evolution theory. His developed philosophical position was generally known as “personal idealism”, or “humanism”, though it was closely akin to the pragmatism of William James. The kinship may be seen in Schiller’s thesis that a theory of knowledge cannot be formed by abstracting from man’s total experience, and may be seen further in his advocacy of the “logic of discovery” over the “logic of proof.” Main worksRiddles of the Sphinx, 1891; Humanism, 1903; Logic For Use, 1930. — C.K.D.