SCIENCE AND REVOLUTION 



VIII. THE REHABILITATION OF NATURAL PHI- 

 LOSOPHY IN ENGLAND 



The men who built on the foundation laid by 

 Bacon developed his materialism in two different 

 directions. Those who felt attracted by the 

 theistic aphorisms of his doctrine, became the 

 fathers of metaphysical schools of thinkers in 

 England and France. On the other hand, those 

 who felt kin to the materialist essence of Ba- 

 conian philosophy, continued along this road and 

 thus became the intellectual fathers of the so- 

 cialist philosophy. Frequently these two tenden- 

 cies intermingled and produced a hybrid material- 

 ist dualism, which was quite as incongruous as 

 the metaphysical materialism of their predeces- 

 sors. 



This imperfect and groping philosophy led to 

 absurd contradictions between the theory and 

 practice of scientists and philosophers. For in- 

 stance, the logical successor of Bacon, Hobbes, 

 was more pronounced and consistent in his ma- 

 terialism than Bacon, and pushed the human 

 mind forward in the line of evolution toward a 

 more empirical and monistic science. But po- 

 litically he was a reactionary of the first water, a 



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