SCIENCE PROGRESS 



RECENT ADVANCES IN SCIENCE 



FHILOSOFHT. By Hugh Elliot. 



The most interesting event of the last six months, from the 

 purely personal point of view, is the centenary of Herbert 

 Spencer, who was born at Derby on April 27, 1820. Of all 

 philosophers who have ever lived, he is perhaps the one who 

 has most appealed to men of science : and perhaps also the 

 one who has least appealed to the professional metaphysician. 

 The latter class did not admit him as a philosopher at all, until 

 public appreciation compelled his recognition ; and it is 

 characteristic that his centenary has been passed over in 

 silence by most of the philosophic journals, while a public 

 newspaper such as the Times devoted a leading article to the 

 celebraHon of the event. The neglect of Spencer by philo- 

 sophic specialists is not at all surprising. He took every oppor- 

 tunity of condemning the methods of metaphysics : he ridiculed 

 their results, and ignored their writings : he would not even 

 read Kant. He insisted that the conclusions of science were 

 the subject-matter of philosophy, which could be effectively 

 studied only by the methods of science : all his interests, all 

 his serious reading, was in science, and on the basis of science 

 alone he started to construct a fresh system of philosophy 

 totally independent of anything that had gone before. It is 

 true that he did not wholly escape metaphysical infection. His 

 doctrine of the Unknowable, and his attempted reconciliation 

 of science and religion, were very weak, and no serious student 

 now attaches the least importance to them. The metaphysical 

 portions of his Principles of Psychology have similarly passed 

 into total oblivion. He adopted, as the final test of truth of 

 any proposition, " the inconceivability of its negation " : and 

 if he had lived into the days of relativity, he would probably 

 have denied that doctrine on the grounds of a priori impos- 

 sibility. Criticism of Spencer is easy but unprofitable : the 

 real value of his work is apt to be lost sight of, for the simple 

 reason that it has been thoroughly incorporated into all our 

 modes of thought, and no longer strikes us as novel or unusual. 

 He is the founder of scientific psychology. Every psychologist 



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