96 THE PROBLEM OF EVOLUTION 



remark, Plate seems to have completely for 

 gotten that in my third lecture, in which I 

 dealt with the origin of man, I had recourse to 

 zoology in just the same way as in the first 

 lecture, when I spoke of ants, beetles, etc. 

 In none of my lectures have I used dogma 

 against science ; what Plate here calls dogma, 

 is really the law of reasoned thought, which I 

 have repeatedly used against the false con 

 clusions of a monistic philosophy. 



Professor Plate next proceeded to establish more 

 firmly what he had said about my twofold character. 

 He referred to the problem of the existence of matter, 

 and said : We scientists maintain that matter 

 exists, that nothing is formed out of nothing, and 

 that matter is everlasting. We cannot accept 

 the theory that matter was created, and if we did 

 accept it, we should be no better off. We are modest 

 enough to dispense with a further solution of this 

 problem. 



Although Professor Plate professes to speak 

 in the name of scientists in general, he does not 

 do so, but he is expressing his opinion as a 

 monistic philosopher. The scientist may say : 

 I know nothing about the origin of matter, 

 but he must not say that matter is therefore 

 everlasting; for a statement of this kind 

 belongs to philosophy with its metaphysical 

 problems. To assume the eternity of matter 



