INTRODUCTORY. 65 



Culture. Considering these enormous responsibilities, 

 these momentous issues which have lain heavily on 

 the philosophic mind in recent times, it is not surpris- 

 ing to find that many philosophic thinkers have taken 

 refuge in studies which are subsidiary or purely pre- 

 liminary. Frightened, as it were, by the overwhelming 

 importance of the final problems, they have contented 

 themselves with taking up a position similar to that which 

 is habitual and customary among men of pure science. 



There it has long been recognised that progress can 

 only be attained by specialisation. The scientific prob- 

 lem, as a whole, does not exist. It can only be solved 

 in parts. The science of any age consists in the sum- 

 mation of numberless contributions. But the problem 52. 

 of philosophy, which is the problem of Life, is one and science are 



many, prob- 



undivided. Those who only take up special aspects lem of pinio- 



"^ ^ ^ ^ sopliy is 



must do SO with the conviction that their work is incom- °'*^- 

 plete, not only in the sense that all human work is in- 

 complete, but in that sense which is the only important 

 one from a philosophical point of view, viz., in its 

 bearing upon the whole and undivided issue. The 

 only escape from that depressing conviction of in- 

 adequacy which the resignation of the philosophical 

 specialist necessarily produces, lies in the belief that 

 the solution of the problem of Life is worked out by 

 different means, and in a different sphere, from those 

 peculiar to philosophical thought. I shall point out 

 in the sequel how certain scientific and philosophical 

 notions which have become current in the latter half 

 of the nineteenth century — notably the theories of 

 Evolution and the tendency to consider everything 

 VOL. III. E 



