CHAPTER III 



THE APPEAL TO BIOLOGY 



The "social organism" in other writers In Comte Idealist supple- 

 ment to the biological appeal Professor Mackenzie's statement 

 of the idealist view Intuitionalist criticism of the appeal Comte 

 uses a biological parable Consistent phenomenalism means (if not 

 evolutionism) hedonism Comtism and hedonism two half truths 



[Note A. On Drummond's Natural Law in the Spiritual World 

 "Biological religion," according to Finlayson Drummond ap- 

 peals to biogenesis His religion is Calvinistic, rather, or Gnostic 

 His noble zeal for continuity in knowledge] 



BIOLOGY comes next below sociology in Comte's 

 scheme of the sciences. As we have seen, it is some- 

 what difficult to know how far, upon Comte's own 

 principles, this juxtaposition of the two sciences war- 

 rants him in expecting the ideas of the lower science 

 to serve as a guiding clue in the construction of the 

 higher. Let it be enough to say that, whether in obe- 

 dience to his own principles or without warrant from 

 them, Comte has drawn a good deal from the biologi- 

 cal analogy. As far back in time as the secession of 

 the Roman Plebs, the parable of the " belly and the 

 members " is alleged to have taught moral lessons to 

 hot-headed or selfish factions. Again, in St. Paul's 

 account of the Church, we are introduced to an or- 

 ganism in which all the members rejoice or suffer 



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