54 THE MECHANISM OF LIFE 



whereby we make discoveries and obtain increa,sed power over 

 , material things. They are concepts that can be investigated, 

 inasmuch as they include the notion of conservation. 



All this goes to show, does it not, that the law of conservation 

 is an a priori one — it is a form of our thought ? 



Compare it with Kant's " first analogy of experience " : " In all 

 changes of phenomena substance is permanent, and the quantum 

 thereof in nature is neither increased nor diminished." Pheno- 

 mena are, in so far as they are real, energy transformations, and 

 their " substance " — that which underlies them — is energy in the 

 abstract. .If Kant's transcendental logic is valid, the first law is 

 a mode of operation of the mind; it is something that makes 

 experience by arranging sensations. 



And so we are not surprised when a physicist invents a potential 

 energy to account for something that appears to arise out of, or 

 passes into, nothing, and when his invention works out and leads 

 to discoveries and practical appUcations. He acts upon nature 

 because he has sensory data and " categories of the under- 

 standing " — mental operators, we shall say — that deal with 

 sensory data. It is because he acts that he has a mind, for the 

 'latter is the expression of his action. Since the law of conser- 

 vation is a means of action, it follows, of course, that operations 

 based upon it — that is, potential energies, ether, electronic 

 systems, etc. — must " work " or have " pragmatic value." 



The second law is quite different: it has nothing at all a priori 

 • in it, as it is simply the resume of our experience. It tells us that 

 entropy always increases when anything happens, and that 

 means, for our present purpose at least, that water does not run 

 up hill, a cold poker in a cold fireplace does not become red-hot, 

 chairs and tables do not " levitate," etc. We can imagine all 

 these things happening, and if we think about it we do not 

 see why they should not happen, except that they never have 

 done so in our experience. With this observation, however, we 

 defer the discussion of the second law till a later chapter. 



