THE SCOPE OF PHILOSOPHY 



laries of the principle of the persistence of force, 

 — were both shown to be necessitated by the 

 axiom that no force is ever lost, — then the 

 result reached was a philosophical result. So 

 when Von Baer discovered that the evolution 

 of a living organism from the germ-cell is a pro- 

 gressive change from homogeneity of structure 

 to heterogeneity of structure, he discovered a 

 scientific truth. But when Herbert Spencer ap- 

 plied Von Baer's formula to the evolution of 

 the solar system^ of the earth, of the totality 

 of life upon its surface, of society, of conscious 

 intelligence, and the products of conscious in- 

 telligence, then he discovered a truth in philoso- 

 phy, — a truth applicable not merely to one 

 order of phenomena, but to all orders. 



These illustrations, however, do not bring out 

 distinctly enough the point which I am endeav- 

 ouring to elucidate. The difference between 

 philosophy and science, like the difference be- 

 tween science and common knowledge, is a 

 difference in degree only. But the distinction is 

 nevertheless a broad one, and as such is some- 

 what understated in the foregoing paragraph, 

 because the examples there cited on the side of 

 science are all taken from that transcendental 

 region of science in which its problems begin 

 to have implications almost as universal as the 

 problems of philosophy. Thoroughly to esti- 

 mate the character of the distinction, we shall 



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