RECENT ADVANCES IN SCIENCE 



PHILOSOPHY. By Hugh Elliot. 



Recent philosophical publications have not been unimportant 

 from the standpoint of metaphysics, but have in general not 

 been such as to interest the worker in science or to promote the 

 advancement of natural knowledge. The tendency to spiritual- 

 istic, as opposed to materialistic interpretations continues 

 unabated. It would appear that the gross ethical materialism 

 involved by war has reacted against all forms of scientific 

 materialism by confusion of two ideals that have in truth 

 nothing whatever in common with each other. In our last 

 philosophical review we referred to the increasing interest 

 taken in pure spiritualism. In the region of twilight on the 

 borders of every science, speculators find scope to exercise 

 their fancy till such time as their imaginings are dissipated by 

 the rising light of knowledge. Yet the twilight falls so gradually 

 that it is often hard to draw the line between genuine and 

 spurious speculation. 1 hus Newton warned Physics to beware 

 of Metaphysics ; but modern researches on the constitution of 

 matter show how difficult it is to draw the dividing line. Still 

 more gradually does biology merge into meta-biology, vitalism 

 and so on. 



Some important articles on the philosophic bearings of the 

 electron theory of matter have been published by M. L. Rougier 

 in the Revue Philosophique, under the title " La Materialisation 

 de l'Energie." He sets forward two alternative theories, the 

 first of which he calls the dematerialisation of matter, i his is 

 the theory of aether, in which matter is regarded as the location 

 of strain, condensation or destruction, in a milieu possessing 

 inertia and mechanical properties. This theory he rejects 

 owing to the incompatible properties which it is necessary to 

 attribute to the ccther. ihe second theory is that of the 

 materialisation of energy : energy passes out of the " phantom 

 domain of the imponderable " and comes forth possessed of 

 inertia, weight, and structure, manifesting itself in the two 

 34 5i7 



