THE GREEK ATTITUDE 



form or similar end; for man generates man^ and 

 plant generates plants in each case out of the under- 

 lying material.""^ But this elementary material sub- 

 stratum is of minor importance since the form or 

 essence is derived from a like parent. Aristotle illus- 

 trates this by referring to a house which is not a col- 

 lection of bricks, stones, and other material, but the 

 idea or pattern of the house which exists in the mind 

 of the builder, and the house is not transformable 

 into any other thing constructed of like materials. 



Both Plato and Aristotle had examined, and finally 

 discarded the monistic philosophy of their prede- 

 cessors and had developed in place of it a com- 

 prehensive dualism. They recognized a material and 

 objective world obedient to physical or natural law, 

 but they could not conceive of the origin of such law 

 without a Creator; and as they saw in the world evi- 

 dences of design and purpose, rather than the opera- 

 tion of mathematical chance, the Creator must also 

 rule his creation. Thus, associated with the material 

 world and distinct from it, there exists a realm of 

 ideas governed by hyperphysical or spiritual forces. 

 It is the highest function of the philosopher to dis- 

 tinguish these two realms and to show how the soul, as 

 it were imprisoned in the body, is still a separate en- 

 tity, superior to the body and directing it. While our 

 knowledge of objective and of subjective phenomena 



23 646 a. 



1:653 



