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 law or not, whether it is sufficient unto
itself or not, there is a world full of the most diverse phenomena, and
there are laws. Whence then have both these come? Is it a matter of
should be exactly as they are? We do not here appeal without further
ceremony to the saying "everything must have a cause, therefore the world
also." It is not absolutely correct. For instance, if the world were so
constituted that it would be impossible for it not to exist, that the
necessity for its existence and the inconceivability of its non-existence
were at once explicit and obvious, then there would be no sense in
inquiring after a cause. In regard to a "necessary" thing, if there were
any such, we cannot ask, "Why, and from what cause does this exist?" If it
was necessary, that implies that to think of it as not existing would be
ridiculous, and logically or metaphysically impossible. Unfortunately
there are no "necessary" things, so that we cannot illustrate the case by
examples. But there are at least necessary truths as distinguished from
contingent truths. And thus some light may be brought into the matter for
the inexpert. For instance, a necessary truth is contained in the
sentence, "Everything is equal to itself," or, "The shortest distance
between two points is a straight line." We cannot even conceive of the
contrary. Therefore these axioms have no reasons, and can neither be
deduced nor proved. Every question as to their reasons is quite
meaningless. As examples of a "contingent" truth we may take "It rains
to-day," or "The earth revolves round the sun." For neither one nor the
other of these is necessarily so. It is so as a matter of fact, but under
other circumstances it might have been otherwise. The contrary can be
conceived of and represented, and has in itself an equal degree of
possibility. Therefore such a fact requires to be and is capable of being
reasoned out. I can and must ask, "How does it happen that it rains
to-day? What are the reasons for it?" But as we must seek for sufficient
reasons for "contingent" truths, that is, for those of which the contrary
was equally possible, so assuredly we must seek for sufficient causes for
"contingent" phenomena and events, those which can be thought of as not
existing, or as existing in a different form. For these we must find
causes and actual reasons. Otherwise they have no foundation. The element
of "contingency" must be done away with; they must be shown to result from
sufficient causes. That is to say nothing less than that they must be
traced back to some necessity. For it is one of the curious fundamental
convictions of our reason, and one in which all scientific investigation
has its ultimate roots, that what is "contingent" is only apparently so,
and in reality is in some way or other based on necessity. Therefore
reason seeks causes for everything.
The search for causes involves showing that a thing was necessary. And
this must obviously apply to the world as a whole. If it were quite
obvious that the world and its existence as it is were necessary, that is,
that it would be contrary to reason to think of the world, and its
phenomena, and their obedience to law as non-existent, or as different
from what they are, all inquiry would be at an end. This would be the
ultimate necessity in which all the apparent contingency of isolated
phenomena and existences was firmly based. But this is far from being the
case. That anything exists, and that the world exists, is for us
absolutely the greatest "contingency" of all, and in regard to it we can
and must continually ask, "Why does anything exist at all, and why should
it not rather be non-existent?" Indeed, all our quest for sufficient
causes here reaches its climax. In more detail: that these celestial
systems and bodies, the ether, attraction and gravitation should exist,
and that everything should be governed by definite laws, all literally "as
if shot from a pistol," there must undoubtedly be some sufficient reason,
certain as it is that we shall never discover it. It is true, as some one
has said, that we live not only in a very fortuitous world, but in an
incredibly improbable one. And this is not affected by the fact that the
world is completely governed by law. Law only confirms it. The fact that
all details may be clearly and mathematically calculated in no way
prevents them from being fundamentally contingent. For they are only so
calculable on the basis of the given fundamental characters of the world.
And that is precisely the problem: "Why do these characters exist and not
quite different ones, and why should any exist at all?"
If any one should say: "Well, we must just content ourselves with
recognising the essentially 'contingent' nature of existence, for we shall
never be able to get beyond that," he would be right in regard to the
second statement. To get beyond that and to see what it is--eternal and in
itself necessary--that lies at the basis of this world of "contingency" is
indeed impossible. But he would be wrong as to the first part of the
assertion. For no one will "content himself." For that all chance is
only apparently chance, and is ultimately based in necessity, is a
deeply-rooted and fundamental conviction of our reason, one which directs
all scientific investigation, and which cannot be ignored. It demands
ceaselessly something necessary as the permanent basis of contingent
existence. And this fact is and remains the truth involved in the
"cosmological proofs of the existence of God" of former days. It was
certainly erroneous to suppose that "God" could be proved. For it is a
long way from that "idea of necessity" to religious experience of God. And
it was erroneous, too, to suppose that anything could be really "proved."
What is necessary can never really be proved from what is contingent. But
the recognition of the contingent nature of the world is a stimulus that
stirs up within our reason the idea of the necessary, and it is a fact
that reason finds rest only in this idea.
More
-
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... The Dependence Of The Order Of Nature
(2 and 3). The "dependence" of all things is the second requirement of religion, without which it is altogether inconceivable. We avoid the words "creation" and "being created," because they involve anthropomorphic and altogether insufficient mode... The Development Of Darwinism
In studying it we should like to follow a method somewhat different from that usually observed in apologetic writings. "Darwinism," even in its technical, biological form, never was quite, and is to-day not at all a unified and consistent system. ... The Ego
It was customary in earlier psychology, as it still is in all apologetic psychology, to regard the soul as a unified, immaterial, indivisible and therefore indestructible substance, as a monad, which, as a unity without parts, superior to its own ... The Fundamental Answer
How can the religious conception of the world justify itself and maintain its freedom in face of such views of spirit and spiritual being? It is questionable whether it is worth while attempting to do so. Is not the essence of the validity and fre... The Law Of The Conservation Of Energy
Helmholtz's proof established mathematically what Kant had already, by direct insight, advanced as an a priori fundamental axiom: that in any given system the sum of energy can neither increase (impossibility of a perpetuum mobile) nor diminish (t... The Mechanics Of Development
5. The minds of the supporters of the mechanical theory had still to move along a fifth line in order to solve the riddle of the development of the living individual from the egg, or of the germ to its finished form, the riddle of morphogenesis. T... The Mystery Of Existence Remains Unexplained
1. Let us begin with the problem of the mystery of all existence, and see whether it remains unaffected, or whether it disappears in face of naturalistic interpretation, with its discovery and formulation of law and order, with its methods of meas... The Organic And The Inorganic
2. What is on a priori grounds demanded as a necessity, or set aside as impossible, on the strength of the axiom of the conservation of energy, must be proved a posteriori by investigation. It must be shown in detail that the difference between th... The Position Of Bunge And Other Physiologists
For a long time one of the most prominent figures in the controversy was Prof. G. Bunge, of Basle, who was one of the first modern physiologists to champion vitalism, and who has tried to show by analogies and illustrations what is necessarily imp... The Problema Continui
The problem of descent thus shows itself to be one which has neither isolated character nor special value. It is an accessory accompaniment of all the questions and problems which have been raised by, or are associated with, the doctrine of evolut... The Real World
(4.) What was stated separately in our first and second propositions, and has hitherto been discussed, now unites and culminates in the fourth. For if we note the vital expressions of religion wherever it occurs, we find above all one thing as its... The Recognition Of Purpose
(6.) We must now turn to the question of "teleology." Only now, not because it is a subordinate matter, for it is in reality the main one, but because it is the culminating point, not the starting point, of our argument. If the world be from God a... The Religious Interpretation Of The World
The title of this book, contrasting as it does the naturalistic and the religious interpretation of the world, indicates that the intention of the following pages is, in the first place, to define the relation, or rather the antithesis, between th... The Spontaneous Activity Of The Organism
What is particularly luminous in all the theories that express the most recent anti-Darwinian tendency is that they tend to bring into prominence the mysterious powers of living organisms, by means of which, instead of passively waiting for natura... The Supremacy Of Mind
From the standpoint we have now reached we can look back once more on those troublesome naturalistic insinuations as to the dependence of the mind upon the body, which we have already considered. It is evident to us all that our mental development... The Theory Of Descent
Again and again we hear and read, even in scientific circles and journals, that Darwinism breaks down at many points, that it is insufficient, and even that it has quite collapsed. Even the assurances of its most convinced champions are rather for... The True Naturalism
But naturalism becomes fundamentally different when it ceases to remain at the level of naive or fancifully conceived ideas of "nature" and "natural occurrences," when, instead of poetry or religious sentiments, it incorporates something else, nam... The Two Kinds Of Naturalism
But let us return to the two kinds of naturalism we have already described. Much as they differ from one another in reality, they are very readily confused and mixed up with one another. And the chief peculiarity of what masquerades as naturalism ... The Unconscious
But one has a repugnance to descending into this strange region. And religion, with its clear and lofty mood, can never have either taste for or relationship with considerations which so easily take an "occult" turn. Nor is its mysticism concerned... The Unity Of Consciousness
2. The same holds true of the unity of consciousness, of which we are directly convinced. It is quite inexplicable if consciousness is a function of the extended and divisible physical substratum which is built up of nerve-cells and nerve-fibres. ... The Views Of Albrecht And Schneider
An outlook and interpretation which Driesch(102) maintained for a while, but afterwards abandoned, has been developed in an original and peculiar fashion by Eugen Albrecht, Prosector and Pathologist in Munich.(103) It is the theory of different wa... The Views Of Botanists Illustrated
It might have been expected that in the domain of plant-biology, if anywhere, the mechanistic standpoint would have been the prevailing one. For it is almost a matter of course to regard plants as devoid of sensation or "psychical" life, and as me... The World And God
The world and nature are marvellous in their being, but they are not "divine"! The formula "natura sive deus" is a monstrous misuse of the word "deus," if we are to use the words in the sense which history has given to them. God is the Absolute Bein... Theory Of Definite Variation
But the question now arises, whether both Darwinism and Lamarckism must not be replaced, or at least reduced to the level of accessory theories and factors, by another theory of evolution which was in the field before Darwin, and which since his t... Theory Of Life
What is life--not in the spiritual and transcendental sense, but in its physical and physiological aspects? What is this mysterious complex of processes and phenomena, common to everything animate, from the seaweed to the rose, and from the human bo... Underivability
The first of the three points we have called attention to has, so to speak, become famous through the lectures of du Bois-Reymond, which attracted much attention, on "The Limits of Natural Knowledge," and "The Seven Riddles of the Universe." That ... Various Forms Of Darwinism
The great majority of these express what may be called popular Darwinism ["Darwinismus vulgaris"], theoretically worthless, but practically possessed of great powers of attraction and propagandism. It expresses in the main a conviction, usually le... Virchow's Caution
Here, as also in regard to "Darwinism," which was advanced about the same time, the typical advocate of "caution" was Rudolf Virchow. His doubts and reservations found utterance very soon after the theory itself had been promulgated. In his "Cellu... Virchow's Position
Warnings of this kind have come occasionally from Du Bois-Reymond, but the true type of this group, and its mode of thought, is Virchow. It will repay us and suffice us to make acquaintance with it through him. His opposition to Darwinism and the ... Weismann's Evolutionist Position
The most characteristic representative, however, of the modern school of unified and purified Darwinism is not Haeckel, but the Freiburg zoologist, Weismann. Through a long series of writings he has carried on the conflict against heterodox, and e... Weismannism
In regard to almost all the points to which we have referred, the most consistent and decided champion of Darwinism in its essential principles is the zoologist of Freiburg, August Weismann.(35) In long chapters on the protective coloration of ani... What Is Distinctive In The Naturalistic Outlook
At first tentative, but becoming ever more distinctly conscious of its real motive, Naturalism has always arisen in opposition to what we may call "supernatural" propositions, whether these be the naive mythological explanations of world-phenomena... What Is Distinctive In The Religious Outlook
At the very beginning and throughout we must keep the following points clearly before us, otherwise all our endeavours will only lead us astray, and be directed towards an altogether false issue. Firstly, everything depends and must depend upon ...