CHAPTER I 



THE ORIGIN OF THE MODERN IDEA OF NATURE IN THE 

 SEVENTEENTH AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES 



CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY gave fise to two explanations of natural phenom- 

 ena, each splendid in its own way: that of Democritus and that of 

 Aristotle. As will be remembered, Democritus attempted to explain 

 all phenomena in existence, both physical and psychical, by the assumption 

 that things were composed of a mass of particles, varying in size, shape, and 

 movement, whose mutual interrelation caused all that is and all that 

 happens, all, in fact, that is observable or conceivable. The weakness of this 

 theory lay in the fact that it gave no explanation of the obedience to law 

 which experience has proved beyond any doubt to exist in all that happens 

 in nature. It was therefore supplanted by Aristotle's cosmic explanation, 

 which maintained just this universal obedience to law, but based it upon the 

 assumption of a divine intelligence which governs and gives form to what is 

 in itself formless matter, controlling the latter in various degrees — less in 

 inanimate nature, more in the animate, and most in the celestial spheres 

 which hold sway over the imperfect earth. In animate nature this force ap- 

 pears as soul, vital spirit, which creates higher forms of existence the more it 

 overcomes matter. This cosmic theory, which, owing to its logically consis- 

 tent formulation, is unique in its greatness, has been characterized as dynamic 

 and vitalistic in contrast to materialistic atomism. It has with greater reason 

 been called aesthetic, since Aristotle really looked upon natural phenomena 

 from the point of view of an artist who gives form to matter; it has even been 

 called teleological, because according to it everything in existence has a pur- 

 pose which is determined by the governing intelligence. In this latter charac- 

 teristic we really find that quality in the Aristotelean thought-system which 

 has proved most fateful both for that system and for man's conception of 

 life in general. The divine intelligence which Aristotle invented in order to 

 make possible the assumption of law-bound existence on purely speculative 

 grounds became a welcome ally to the pious aims of late antiquity and still 

 more so to the mediaeval Church. One found indications of similarity be- 

 tween it and the "divine power" of the old myths of creation, and thus 

 received an idea of the course of the world, apparently scientific, but actually 

 based upon legends from the childhood of man. 



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