3715

Philomela

the result of abstraction from sentences.
There has been and is still much controversy
regarding the correct definition of a sentence.
There is some diversity also in the current
classifications of sentences. The variety of
languages is so great, and the transition from
from one to another often so imperceptible,
that it is difficult to discover any principle of
classification. The historical investigation of
the earliest known languages leaves us far
away from the beginnings of speech. What-
ever account is given of the origin of lan-
guage, it is simply what to us is compre-
hensible or conceivable, an account which
is in accordance with the physical and psy-
chological constitution of man as we know
it, and in agreement with the history of
the development of language in its later
stages. See Whitney's Language and the
Study of Language (4th ed. 1884); Paul's
Principles of the History of Language (re-
vised ed. 1891); Skeat's Philology (1905);
Jespersen's Progress in Language with special
Reference to English (1894); Oertel's Lec-
tures on the Study of Language (1901);
Mencken's The American Language (rev. ed.
1921); Treasury of English Aphorisms with
American Variants (1928).

Philomela, in ancient Greek legend, a
daughter of Pandion, king of Athens; her
sister Procne was married to Tereus, king of
Thrace. Later, however, he was seized with
a passion, for Philomela, and dishonored her.
She and Procne then took .vengeance on
Tereus by slaying his son Itys and setting
his flesh before him to eat. Discovering
this, he pursued them with an axe; and
they were transformed—Procne into a night-
ingale, Philomela into a swallow, and Ter-
eus into a hoopoe. Such is the usual form
of the tale, but some versions make Procne
the swallow and Philomela the nightingale.
Thus in English poetry Philomela or Philo-
-nel is used as a synonym of the nightingale.

Philosophical Society, American. A.
learned body with headquarters in Phila-

Philosophy

Membership in the society is a much prized
distinction, given only to men of great at-
tainments. It confers annually a gold medal,
founded in 1785 by a gift from John Hya-
cinthe de Magellan, for contributions to
navigation, natural history, or astronomy.
It publishes annual Transactions and Pro-
ceedings.

Philosophy (literally, a love of wis-
dom), is a system of principles, reasons,
and laws which attempt to explain the
knowledge we have of phenomena. This
term is used in a wider and narrower sense.
In the narrower sense it is identical with
metaphysics. In the wider sense it includes,
besides metaphysics, logic, ethics, and psy-
chology ; and this group is sometimes swelled
by the addition of philosophy of religion,
philosophy of law, etc. But the more we
subdivide philosophy into philosophies in
this way, the more we tend to confuse
and obliterate the distinction. Moreover
the philosophies in question seem to dupli-
cate unnecessarily sciences which already ex-
ist under other names—viz., theology, juris-
prudence, etc. The old term 'natural phil-
osophy' is still used as a variant for physics
We may turn, then, to the traditional group
of philosophical sciences—logic, ethics, and
psychology. Morality, or ethics, is a quite
definite and limited sphere or subject-matter,
and is therefore, presumably, the object of
a special science. And if it be argued that
the study of ethics raises difficult meta-
physical problems (such as free will), the
same may be said of any other science if
pushed far enough back. Psychology, some
would say, is now definitely recognized as
a natural science; it has become a science
of experimental research carried on in lab-
oratories. It is true, of course, that when
we regard psychology as simply the comple-
ment of that part of physiology which treats
of that nervous system and the functions of
the brain, it does then belong to the domain
of natural science. But the whole signi-

delphia, founded in 1743 in pursuance of ficance of mind is not exhausted by point -
the suggestion of Benjamin Franklin, who ing to its correlation with a bodily organ.

became its first secretary and second presi-
dent. In 1769 it joined with Junto, a society
formed about 1758 under the present official
title, the American Philosophical Society
held at Philadelphia for Promoting Useful
Knowledge. Among its presidents have been
the astronomer David Rittenhouse and
Thomas Jefferson. It owns valuable collec-
tions of books, portraits, busts and relics.

Some of the most eminent psychologists
have expressly recognized that the differentia
ot psychology as a science consists, not in
dealing with a special department of knowl-
edge from the point of view of its growth in
the mind of the individual knower. Accord-
ingly psychology, in so far as it is con-
cerned with knowledge itself in one of its
more general aspects, is & philosophical and