20 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIX. No. 470, 



We wish to recognize as much of them as 

 our human faculties will permit, and wish 

 to study them by methods of investigation 

 which proved to be reliable in the investiga- 

 tions of the phenomena of the ihorganic 

 world. Then there are some preliminary 

 ■questions to be answered. 



TRANSCENDENTAL VITALISM AND MECHANISM. 



The first question is: Suppose there will 

 come a time when all laws of the inorganic 

 world and also all structures and laws of the 

 animated world, as far as they are accessible 

 to the human faculties, will be completely 

 known— will it then be found that the phe- 

 nomena of life can be completely solved, 

 or will it be found that life has still an 

 element which is inconceivable, inaccessible 

 to the grasp of human faculties. This is 

 the concise question between mechanism 

 and vitalism. What should be our position 

 with regard to that question? To this I 

 say it is wholly a transcendental question 

 and not one for physiology and biology to 

 •deal with. Since from the point of view 

 •of the natural or rather biological sciences 

 we wish to investigate only that which is 

 :accessible to human faculties and by meth- 

 lods approved in the natural sciences, we 

 can obviously have no scientific opinions 

 on a subject which is admittedly above the 

 human faculties. An answer in the mech- 

 anistic sense is not a whit more scientific 

 than an answer in favor of vitalism would 

 be. 



This position, however, should not be 

 interpreted as denying the right to entei"- 

 iain such a question. It is certainly a 

 perfectly legitimate problem in pure phi- 

 losophy. Neither do I mean to deny the 

 naturalist the right to discuss philosophical 

 problems. But in such a case the discus- 

 sion in both domains ought to be carried 

 •on strictly separately, otherwise, as experi- 

 ence teaches us, a harmful confusion will 

 be unavoidable. 



To repeat again, we consider the prob- 

 lem formulated in the preceding question 

 as a transcendental one, and we shall, 

 therefore, designate the theories contained 

 in the answers to it as transcendental vital- 

 ism or transcendental mechanism. 



NATURAL VITALISM AND MECHANISM. 



The second question is: Suppose there 

 shall come a time when all laws of the in- 

 organic world as well as the structures and 

 laws of the animated world shall be per- 

 fectly known to us. Would it then be found 

 that the animated world is governed exactly 

 by the same laws as the inanimate one, i. e., 

 by the laws of physics and chemistry, as 

 they will then be known; or will it be 

 found that the vital phenomena, in addi- 

 tion to the chemicophysical forces, are per- 

 vaded by separate energies, separate forces 

 which are specific for living matter? It 

 must be admitted that this question is a 

 perfectly legitimate one and within the 

 bounds of natural science. It is perfectly 

 conceivable that one group of natural phe- 

 nomena might possess energies which other 

 groups do not possess and that vital phe- 

 nomena might differ, indeed, from the 

 phenomena of the inorganic world by a 

 plus of specific energies. In contradis- 

 tinction to the transcendental theories of 

 life we might designate the theories con- 

 tained in the answers to the second ques- 

 tion as natural mechanism and natural 

 vitalism. In other words, then, the theory 

 of natural mechanism assumes that all the 

 conceivable laws of life will prove to be 

 nothing but physics and chemistry, and the 

 theory of natural vitalism assumes that all 

 vital phenomena are directed by specific 

 energies besides those which are found also 

 in the physical world. A little considera- 

 tion will show that the natural and trans- 

 cendental theories are perfectly independ- 

 ent of one another. For instance, the 

 transcendental vitalist can easily accept the 



