Mysticism
Even "pronounced individuality" "has an element of mysticism" in it--of the
non-rational, which we feel the more distinctly the more decidedly we
reject all attempts to make it rational again through crude or subtle
mythologies. This is much more true of genius, artistic insight, and
inspiration. But these are much too delicate to be exposed to the
buffeting of controversy, much more so the dark and mysterious boundary
mysticism in the true sense, without inverted commas. It is not a subject
that is adapted for systematic treatment. Where it has been subjected to
it, everything becomes crude and repulsive, a mere caricature of pure
mysticism like the recrudescent occultism of to-day. Therefore it is
enough simply to call the attention of the sympathetic reader to it and
then to pass it by. In face of the witness borne to it by all that is
finest and deepest in history, especially in the history of religion,
naturalism is powerless.
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Evolution And New Beginnings
All this throws an important light upon two subjects which are relevant in this connection, but which cannot here be exhaustively dealt with,--evolution and new beginnings. Let us consider, for instance, the marvellous range and diversity of the c... Feeling
It is in the four attributes here emphasised that the true nature of mind in its underivability and superiority to all nature first becomes clear. All that we have so far considered under the name of mind is only preliminary and leads up to this. ... Feeling Individuality Genius And Mysticism
The four things here mentioned are very closely associated with one another, especially the second and third, as is easily perceived, but the second is rooted in the first. And in the second and third there is already to be discovered a factor whi... Freedom Of Spirit
The consciousness of the ego leads us naturally to the consciousness of freedom. Freedom of the mind is no simple idea; it embraces various contents which bear the relation of stages to one another, and each higher stage presupposes the one below ... Fundamental Principles Of Naturalism
The fundamental convictions of naturalism, its general tendencies, and the points of view which determine its outlook, are primarily related to that order of facts which forms the subject of the natural sciences, to "Nature." It is only secondarily ... Genius
We cannot venture to say much about genius and the mystery of it. In it and its creative power something of the spirit, the nature of the spirit, seems to look up at us, as we might think of it in itself and apart from the limits of existence in t... Goethe's Attitude To Naturalism
The most instructive example we can take is Goethe: his veneration for nature on the one hand, and on the other his pronounced opposition to the naturalism both of the materialists and of the mathematicians. Modern naturalists are fond of seeking ... Haeckel's Evolutionist Position
The average type of the Theory of Descent of the older or orthodox school, which still lingers in the background with its Darwinism unshaken, is that set forth by Haeckel, scientifically in his "Generelle Morphologie der Organismen" (1866), and "S... Heredity
6. With this fifth line of thought a sixth is associated and intertwined. The problem of development is closely bound up with that of "heredity." A developing organism follows the parental type. The acorn in its growth follows the type of the pare... How All This Affects The Religious Outlook
These denials and destructive criticisms of the mechanical theory, which are now continually cropping up, lead, as must be obvious, towards a deeper conception and interpretation of reality in general, and towards a religious conception in particu... How The Religious And The Naturalistic Outlooks Conflict
Religion comes into contact with naturalism and demands to be reconciled with it, not merely at its periphery, but at its very core, namely, with its characteristic ideal of a mathematical-mechanical interpretation of the whole world. This ideal s... Immortality
It is in a faith in a Beyond, and in the immortality of our true being, that what lies finely distributed through all religion sums itself up and comes to full blossoming: the certainty that world and existence are insufficient, and the strong des... Individual Development
What lives in us, as far as we can perceive and trace it in its empirical expression, is not a finished and spiritual being that leaps, mature and complete, from some pre-existence or other into its embodied form, but is obviously something that o... Individuality
It is especially in "feeling" that what we call individuality has its roots. The individual really means the "indivisible," and in the strict sense of the word need mean nothing more than the ego, and the unity of consciousness of which we have al... Intuitions Of Reality
(5.) There are other evidences of this depth and hidden nature of things, towards which an examination of our knowledge points. For "in feeling and intuition appearance points beyond itself to real being." So ran our fifth proposition. This subjec... Irritability
3. A property which seems to be quite peculiar to living matter is irritability, or the power of responding to "stimuli," that is to say, of reacting to some influence from without in such a manner that the reaction is not the mere equivalent of t... Is There Ageing Of The Mind?
Naturalism is also only apparently right in asserting that the mind ages with the body. To learn the answer which all idealism gives to this comfortless theory, it is well to read Schleiermacher's "Monologues," and especially the chapter "Youth an... Lamarckism And Neo-lamarckism
The "Lamarckian" view as opposed to the Darwinian continues to hold its own, and indeed is more ardently supported than ever. On this view, evolution has been accomplished not by a laborious selection of the best which chanced to present itself--a... Machnical Theories Criticism
In attempting to define our attitude to the mechanical theory of life, we have first of all to make sure that we have a right to take up a definite position at all. We should have less right, or perhaps none, if this theory of life were really of... Mind And Spirit The Human And The Animal Soul
What is the relation between the human and the animal mind? This has always been a vital question in the conflict between naturalism and the religious outlook. And as in the whole problem of the psychical so here the interest on both sides has bee... Mystery : Dependence : Purpose
There is then a threefold religious interest, and there are three corresponding points of contact between the religious and the naturalistic interpretations of the world, where, as it appears, they are necessarily antagonistic to one another. Arra... Mysticism
Even "pronounced individuality" "has an element of mysticism" in it--of the non-rational, which we feel the more distinctly the more decidedly we reject all attempts to make it rational again through crude or subtle mythologies. This is much more ... Natural Selection
We have for the moment provisionally admitted the theory of natural selection, in order to see whether it could be included in a religious interpretation of things. But in reality such an admission is not to be thought of, in face of what is at pr... Naturalism
Naturalism is not of to-day or of yesterday, but is very ancient,--as old, indeed, as philosophy,--as old as human thought and doubt. Indeed, we may say that it almost invariably played its part whenever man began to reflect on the whence and the ho... Naturalistic Attacks On The Autonomy Of The Spiritual
The attacks that have been made by naturalism upon the independence and freedom of the spiritual are so familiar to every one--even from school days--through books of the type of Buechner's "Kraft und Stoff," and Haeckel's "The Riddle of the Unive... No Parallelism
For a long time it seemed as if the theory of parallelism was to gain general acceptance. One might write a whole history of the gradually increasing criticisms of, and reactions from the academic theories which had become almost canonical. But we... Other Instances Of Dissatisfaction With The Theory Of Descent
What was with Virchow only a suggestion of the need for caution, or controversial matter to be subsequently allowed for or contradicted, had more serious consequences to others, and led to still greater hesitancy as regards evolutionist generalisa... Parallelism
The independence and underivability of the psychical, the incomparability of its uniformities with those of mechanical or physico-chemical laws, has proved itself so clear and incontrovertible, notwithstanding all the distortions of naturalism, th... Personality
In as far as man is endowed with a capacity for spiritual life and spiritual possession, he is likewise destined for personality. This includes and designates everything that expresses the peculiar dignity of human nature. Personality is a word wh... Pre-eminence Of Consciousness
But we have already spent too much time over this naive mode of looking at things, which, though it professes to place things in their true light, in reality distorts them and turns them upside down. As if this world of the external and material... Preyer's Position
Along with Virchow, we must name another of the older generation, the physiologist William Preyer, who combated "vitalism," "dualism," and "mechanism" with equal vehemence, and issued a manifesto, already somewhat solemn and official, against "vit... Religion And The Theory Of Descent
In seeking to define our position in regard to the theory of descent it is most important that we should recognise that, when it is looked into closely, the true problem at issue is not a special zoological one, but is quite general, and also that... Self-consciousness
1. Our consciousness is not merely a knowledge of many individual things, the possession of concrete and abstract, particular or general conceptions and ideas, the cherishing of sensations, feelings and the like. We not only know, but we know that... Spontaneous Generation
4. This reduction of known biological phenomena to simpler terms, the lessening of the gap between inorganic and organic chemistry, and the formulation of the doctrine of the conservation of energy, have all prepared the way for a fourth step, the... Teleological And Scientific Interpretations Are Alike Necessary
(7.) Thus religion confidently subjects the world to a teleological interpretation. And to a teleological study in this sense the strictly causal interpretations of natural science are not hostile, but indispensable. For how do things stand? Natur... The Antimony Of Our Conception Of Space
To bring our examples to a conclusion, we find the same sort of antinomy in regard to space, and the world as it is extended in space. Here, too, it becomes apparent that space as we imagine it, and as we carry it with us as a concept for arrangin... The Antimony Of Our Conception Of Time
A few examples may serve to make the point clear. The first of the antinomies is also the most impressive. It brings before us the insufficiency of our conceptions of time, and shows the impossibility of transferring, from the world as it appears ... The Antimony Of The Conditioned And The Unconditioned
The antinomy of the conditioned and the unconditioned leads us along similar lines. Every individual finite thing or event is dependent on its causes and conditions, which precede it or co-exist in inter-relation with it. It is conditioned, and is... The Characteristic Features Of Darwinism
We do not propose to expound the Darwinian theory for the hundredth time; a knowledge of it must be taken for granted. We need only briefly call to mind the characteristic features and catchwords of the theory as Darwin founded it, which have also... The Conservation Of Matter And Energy
1. The whole mechanical theory is based upon a law which is not strictly biological but belongs to science in general--the law of the conservation of matter and energy. This was first recognised by Kant as a general rational concept in his "Critiq... The Constructive Work Of Driesch
What in Reinke's case came about almost unperceived, Driesch did with full consciousness and intention, following the necessity laid upon him by his own gradual personal development and by his consistent, tenacious prosecution of the problem. The ... The Contingency Of The World
But we need not dwell in the meantime on these and the many other difficulties and riddles presented by our cosmological hypothesis. However these may be solved, a general consideration will remain--namely, that whether the world is governed by la...