THE WONDERS OF LIFE 



(hyle) it occupies space, and as force or energy it is 

 endowed with sensation {cf. chapter xix.). Spinoza, who 

 gave the most perfect expression to this idea in his 

 "philosophy of identity," and most clearly treated the 

 notion of substance (as the all-embracing essence of the 

 world), clothes it with two general attributes — extension 

 and thought. Extension is identical with real space, 

 and thought with (unconscious) sensation. The latter 

 must not be confused with conscious human thought; 

 intelligence is not found in substance, but is a special 

 property of the higher animals and man. Spinoza 

 identifies his substance with nature and God, and his 

 system is accordingly called pantheism; but it must 

 be understood that he rejects the anthropomorphic, 

 personal idea of deity. 



A good deal of the infinite confusion that characterizes 

 the conflicts of philosophers over their systems is due 

 to the obscurity and ambiguity of many of their funda- 

 mental ideas. The words "substance" and "God," 

 "soul" and "spirit," "sensation" and "matter," are 

 used in the most different and changing senses. This 

 is especially true of the word "materialism," which is 

 often wrongly taken to be synonymous with monism. 

 The moral bias of idealism against practical materialism 

 (or pure selfishness and sensualism) is forthwith trans- 

 ferred to theoretical materialism, which has nothing to 

 do with it; and the strictures which are justly urged 

 against the one are most unjustifiably applied to the 

 other. Hence it is important to distinguish very care- 

 fully between these two meanings of materialism. 



Theoretical materialism (or hylonism), as a realistic 

 and monistic philosophy, is right in so far as it conceives 

 matter and force to be inseparably connected, and denies 

 the existence of immaterial forces. But it is wrong when 

 it denies all sensation to matter, and regards actual 

 energy as a function of dead matter. Thus, in ancient 



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