The Immoral Purpose of Philosophy

The moral, or immoral, purpose in every philosophy has constituted the true vital germ out of which the entire plant has always grown. To understand how the obstrusest metaphysical assertions of a philosopher have been arrived at, it is always well, and wise, to first ask oneself, what morality do they, or does he, aim at? I don't believe that an impulse to knowledge is the father of philosophy, but that another impulse only made use of knowledge, and mistaken knowledge, as an instrument. But whoever considers the fundamental impulses of man, with a view to determining how far they may have here acted as inspiring genii, or as demons and cobolds, will find that they