Origin of Thought

FOREWORD

We live in an age of uncertainty. Even the great strides towards domination over nature taken during the past two centuries have contributed in bringing western civilisation to intolerable mental indecision. Inevitably we look for salvation, and find it at best in a strong ruler, at worst in any distraction promising relief from the need to accept our individual responsibilities.

The chief factor leading to our disorientated living is widespread scepticism about the value of human reasoning. Not long ago, such an attitude would have been found only in philosophical circles, but greater instruction, better communications and the loss of our ability to concentrate on sustained argument have enabled it to spread throughout society at great cost to objectivity. Subjectivity, however, affords no solid basis on which to found a consistent way of life and fulfil human longing for freedom and dignity.

Rosmini's work on the problem of knowledge places 'the light of reason', not reasoning itself, at the centre of thought. Revealing itself to human beings as the objective source of all knowledge, this light is the sure element upon which all reasoning depends. Without this illumination, even scepticism would be at a loss to express the contradiction inherent to its affirmation of universal doubt.

The light of reason is not a transient feature in human life. It shines before individuals unchangeably, whatever use they make of it and even when they endeavour to turn away from it. As a stable feature it allows human beings to share unceasingly in its eminent characteristics; without entering their existence as part of their subjective being, it is the fount of their dignity, their duties and their rights. As something seen by all who share human nature, it is the source of their unity and brotherhood. And it draws all human beings above themselves, inviting them to search for that of which it is an image. Finally, it offers not only a basis for certainty, but a criterion by which we may judge whether we do in fact possess certainty, defined by Rosmini as 'a firm and reasonable persuasion which conforms to the truth'.

Rosmini's investigation into the source of human knowledge offers much more than the brief synopsis we have attempted here. It also provides, amongst other things, an examination of the relationship in the human person between the light of reason and feeling, or sensation, and shows how these elements contribute objectivity and subjectivity to human existence. Account has been taken of this in the abridgment of the whole work.

We have omitted Rosmini's evaluation of philosophers who before him had considered the problem of the origin of human thought, and from whom he drew so much of his own work. Rosmini's critique, which forms the first of the three volumes which make up the New Essay on the Origin of Ideas in Italian, would have to be considered in any attempt to assign him a place in the history of philosophy, but is dispensed with here so that we may take a closer view of his own principles. The last of the three volumes, On Certainty, will however form an accompanying volume to the present translation.

But even in this edition of volume two, we have in great part omitted Rosmini's reflections on the history of the problem of knowledge, and placed lengthy footnotes, which sometimes form essays in their own right, as an Appendix to the book. We hope that in doing this we have not betrayed his thought, but made it more accessible.

Note

The paragraph numeration used by Rosmini throughout the three volumes of his complete work has been retained in this translation to enable easy reference to the Italian edition. Paragraphs omitted in the translation are indicated by omitted numbers.

[...] indicates an omission from the text of paragraphs.
(0) indicates an omitted footnote. (Removed from web site pages)
App. no. indicates that a footnote has been moved to the Appendix.
[text] indicates an addition by the editors.