CONTENTS 17 



PACK 



CHAPTER XI. THE MECHANICAL CONCEPTION OF 

 LIFE AND ITS LIMITS 



An attempt to refute the theory of evolution. Establishment of 

 theories and investigation of details. Causes and effects. 

 Infinity of same. Impotence of science. Infinite variety 

 in the products of organs. The infinite diversity of the 

 universe. Purpose. Mechanical and teleological causes. 

 There is no end in the development of animals. Sexual 

 selection, orthogenesis, and germinal selection are teleo- 

 logical. Purification of the theory of selection from 

 teleological elements. There are no higher and lower 

 animals. A high grade of organisation gives no more 

 advantage to an animal than a lower. Natural selection is 

 not an absolute principle of betterment. The scientific 

 method of research. Infinite diversity of the universe. 

 Comprehension of same by concepts. Abstraction of the 

 universal. What a natural law is. Ultimate constituents 

 of bodies. Comprehension of the world by ultimate 

 elements. Mathematics. An ether without properties 

 enables us to grasp the world. Does ether exist? Are 

 psychic processes to be conceived corporeally ? The 

 methods of psychology. Consciousness. The world and 

 the soul are only to be conceived as contents of 

 consciousness. Transition from science to theory of 

 knowledge - 358 



CHAPTER XII. NATURE, HISTORY, AND MORALITY 



Truth of scientific ideas. Why the universal seems to us more 

 essential than the individual. The ideas of animals. Why 

 we take ideas for realities. Thinking realities into ideas. 

 Is there a real world lying behind the phenomenal world ? 

 Natural science itself is a human product and pursues an 

 aim. It must not regard itself as the only sound branch 

 of science. The historical sciences. Their method. The 

 historical elements in natural science. The laws justify 

 historical research. The science of evolution rests on 

 probabilities. The origin of the human mind. Had 

 consciousness a beginning? There never were absolutely 

 simple bodies. History and sociology. Origin and 

 development of primitive man. Origin of good and 

 evil. Origin of conscience. Advance of civilisation by 

 tradition. Language. Conflicts of nations. Scientific 



