212 SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE ORGANISM 



to abandon the metaphysical view of the older mechanics ; 

 in this respect it may learn from modern energetical 

 phenomenalism. But mechanical physics is not a system 

 of " fictions." Mechanical physics is " phenomenalism "' in 

 the enlarged meaning of the term as we have defined it, 

 it deals with the " mundus conceptus " as presented to the 

 mind ; but it is a thorough -going, a truly ontological 

 phenomenalism. 1 Its general scheme is aprioristic or 

 ontological, its specific form at a given time is truly 

 "hypothetic," with reference to what "existence' 5 means 

 in enlarged phenomenalism ; in this sense molecules may 

 be found to exist some day, just as do the nucleus and 

 the chromosomes of a cell. 



T/ie Psychological Basis of Universal Mechanics 



So much for the epistemology of mechanical physics ; its 

 merely psychological starting-point is given by the science 

 of acoustics : here we actually know that a body emitting 

 sound is " the same " as is " also " a body moving in a special 

 manner. 2 We cannot discuss here the most important words 



1 It was the great fault of many modern phenomenological physicists to 

 confuse theoretical mechanics as a rational and aprioristic science with the 

 knowledge of the actual motions of perceptual bodies. In fact, rational 

 mechanics is above experience, and is only called into existence by it. 

 Rational mechanics cannot be "false," it would hold, even if all actual 

 movement in the universe did not obey the law of Galilei as modern 

 electrodynamics asserts, at least for very great velocities. Actual movement 

 then would not be pure "mechanical" movement, but would be pure 

 movement corrected by an electromagnetic field. Rational mechanics is 

 nothing but enlarged mathematics, or rather a step beyond real mathematics 

 in general categorical ontology. 



2 The corresponding perception of two "senses" is also the chief reason 

 for distinguishing practical "reality" from "illusion." 



