SCIENCE AND REVOLUTION 



century a few voices have been lifted against it 

 and a new cosmogeny advocated, which never- 

 theless, in its essence, is still a mere modification 

 in modern garb of the atomic theory of Demok- 

 ritos, on which Kant's theory is likewise based. 



By demonstrating the mechanical origin of the 

 universe and transforming the " divine " act of 

 creation into a historical process, Kant went far 

 beyond Newton, who had assumed that a god 

 had given the first impulse to the universe and 

 then left it to follow its own laws. Yet Kant, 

 too, was loath to dismiss the creator. There was 

 still a last hiding place for the mysterious ele- 

 ment of dualism in the fact that the human 

 understanding, with its present organization in 

 the cosmic process, does not penetrate to the 

 " final nature " of things. Kant made this fact 

 the basis for carping attacks on Demokritos, 

 on whose shoulders he stood and whose philoso- 

 phy was in many respects superior to his own. 

 Moreover, Kant never grasped the historical re- 

 lation of Demokritos to Epicurus, and always 

 regarded Epicurus as the father of " sensualism " 

 (materialism), while we have seen that Epicurus 

 was a follower of Demokritos. It is also indis- 

 putable that lack of historical perception was not 

 the least of Kant's shortcomings. His philosophy 



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