Criticisms Of The Mechanistic Theory Of Life
The course of the mechanistic theory of life has been surprisingly similar
to that of its complement, the theory of the general evolution of the
organic world. The two great doctrines of the schools, Darwinism on the
one hand, the mechanical interpretation of life on the other, are both
tottering, not because of the criticism of outsiders, but of specialists
within the schools themselves. And the interest which religion has in this
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is the same in both cases: the transcendental nature of things, the
mysterious depth of appearance, which these theories denied or obscured,
become again apparent. The incommensurableness and mystery of the world,
which are, perhaps, even more necessary to the very life of religion than
the right to regard it teleologically, reassert themselves afresh in the
all-too-comprehensible and mathematically-formulated world, and
re-establish themselves, notwithstanding obstinate and persistent attempts
to do away with them. This is perhaps to the advantage of both natural
science and religion: to the advantage of religion because it can with
difficulty co-exist with the universal dominance of the mathematical way
of looking at things; to the advantage of natural science because, in
giving up the one-sidedness of the purely quantitative outlook, it does
not give up its "foundations," its "right to exist," but only a petitio
principii and a prejudice that compelled it to exploit nature rather than
to explain it, and to prescribe its ways rather than to seek them out.
The reaction from the one-sided mechanical theories shows itself in many
different ways and degrees. It may, according to the individual
naturalist, affect the theory as a whole, or only certain parts of it, or
only particular lines. It starts with mere criticism and with objections,
which go no further than saying that "in the meantime" we are still far
from having reached a physico-chemical solution of the riddle of life; it
may ascend through all stages up to an absolute rejection of the theory as
an idiosyncrasy of the time which impedes the progress of investigation,
and as an uncritical prejudice of the schools. It may remain at the level
of mere protest, and content itself with demonstrating the insufficiency
of the mechanical explanation, without attempting to formulate any
independent theory for the domain of the vital; or it may construct a
specifically biological theory, claiming independence amid other
disciplines, and basing this claim on the autonomy of vital processes; or
it may widen out deliberately into metaphysical study and speculation.
Taken at all these levels it presents such a complete section of the trend
of modern ideas and problems that it would be an attractive study even
apart from the special interest which attaches to it from the point of
view of religious and idealistic conceptions of the universe.
Both Liebig and Johannes Mueller remained vitalists, notwithstanding the
discovery of the synthesis of urea and the increasing number of organic
compounds which were built up artificially by purely chemical methods. It
was only about the middle of the last century that the younger generation,
under the leadership, in Germany, of Du Bois-Reymond in particular, went
over decidedly to the mechanistic side, and carried the doctrines of the
school to ever fresh victories. But opposition was not lacking from the
outset, though it was restrained and cautious.