COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



Human ingenuity is indeed pushed to the limit 

 of its tether when by a play upon words it 

 tries to liken a physical combination of salt, 

 pepper, and meat-juice to an intellectual coor- 

 dination of experiences. 



Apart from these ill-chosen and ill-managed 

 examples, the Cartesian argument, as modified 

 by Mr. Adam, appears to stand as follows : — 

 When a physical event, such as the pulling of 

 a trigger, is followed by another physical event, 

 such as the firing of a pistol, the antecedent re- 

 sembles the consequent, since both are physical 

 events. When an intellectual event, such as the 

 rising into consciousness of the idea of Hamlet, 

 is followed by another intellectual event, such 

 as the ideal representation of a crowded theatre, 

 the antecedent resembles the consequent, since 

 both are intellectual events. When a moral 

 event, such as a fit of ungovernable passion, is 

 followed by another moral event, such as a bit- 

 ter sense of remorse, the antecedent is like the 

 consequent, since both are moral events. There- 

 fore the primal Cause, antecedent to the whole 

 compound series of intellectual and moral events, 

 must be intellectual and moral in its nature. 



Underneath this whole argument there lies 

 an ill-concealed petitio principii. Three parallel 

 lines of causal sequence being set up, it is un- 

 warrantably assumed that causal relations hold 

 only between the successive members of each 

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