First Principles by Herbert Spencer (Vintage 1946 Hardcover)

Description

First Principles is Herbert Spencer’s huge prospectus to the rest of his work, the synthetic philosophy. Spencer divides truth into the Unknowable and Knowable. Whether god(s) exists or not, whether the universe is eternal or was created is unknowable. We can’t conceive of self-creation, eternity, or nothingness. This makes the positions of theism/deism, atheism and pantheism up to dispute. The ultimate nature of physical reality, or materialism versus idealism, is also unknowable, as we can’t conceive of space and time or matter in themselves even though we depend on them. So Spencer’s basically an agnostic. We should be open minded and not conflate our beliefs with the truth. What we can know, and this is philosophy, is systematic or general knowledge of phenomena. All we can know are the effects of the ultimate force(s) behind the universe.