CHAPTER IV. 



THE MONISTIC THEORY. 



Physico-chemical Theory of Life. — latro-mechanism. — Des- 

 cartes, Borelli. — latro-chemistry. — Sylvius le Boe. — The 

 Physico-chemical Theory of Life. — Matter and Energy. — 

 Heterogeneity is merely the result of the arrangement or 

 combination of homogeneous bodies. — Reservation relative 

 to the world of thought. — The Kinetic Theory. 



The unicist or monistic doctrine gives us a third way 

 of conceiving the functional activity of the living 

 being, by levelling and blending its three forms of 

 activity — spiritual, vital, and material. It was 

 expressed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries 

 in "iatro-mechanism " and " iatro-chemistry," concep- 

 tions to which have more recently succeeded the 

 physico-chemical doctrine of life, and finally "current 

 materialism," 



Materialism is not only a biological interpretation ; 

 it is a universal interpretation applicable to the whole 

 of nature, because it is based on a determinate con- 

 ception of matter. Here we find ourselves confronted 

 by the eternal enigma discussed by philosophers 

 relative to this fundamental problem of force and 

 matter. We know what answers were given to 

 the problem by the Ionic philosophers — Thales, 

 Democritus, Heraclitus, and Anaxagoras, who dis- 

 carded the agency of every spiritual power external 



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