

CHAPTER II 

 THE ORIGIN OF THE HUMAN SOUL 



§ 1. Matter and Spirit 



We live in an age in which scientific specialization is stressed 

 as the most important means of advancing the interests of 

 human knowledge; and specialism, by reason of its many tri- 

 umphs, seems to have deserved, in large measure, the prestige 

 which it now enjoys. It has, however, the distinct disadvan- 

 tage of fostering provincialism and separatism. This lopsided 

 learning of the single track mind is a condition that verges on 

 paranoia, leads to naive contempt for all knowledge not 

 reducible to its own set of formulae, and portends, in the near 

 future, a Babel-like confusion of tongues. In fact, the need 

 of a corrective is beginning to be felt in many quarters. This 

 corrective can be none other than the general and synthetic 

 science of philosophy; it is philosophy alone that can fur- 

 nish a common ground and break down the barriers of ex- 

 clusiveness which immure the special sciences within the minds 

 of experts. 



Scientists readily admit the advantage of philosophy in 

 theory, but in practice their approval is far from being un- 

 qualified. A subservient philosophy, which accepts without 

 hesitation all the current dogmas of contemporary science, is 

 one thing, and a critical philosophy venturing to apply the 

 canons of logic to so-called scientific proof is quite another. 

 Philosophy of the latter type is promptly informed that it 

 has no right to any opinion whatever, and that only the scien- 

 tific specialist is qualified to speak on such subjects. But 

 the disqualification, which is supposed to arise from lack of 



special knowledge, is just as promptly forgotten, when there is 



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