Naturalism and Agnosticism, Vol. 2
The Gifford Lectures Delivered Before the University of Aberdeen in the Years 1896-1898 (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Naturalism and Agnosticism, Vol. 2: The Gifford Lectures Delivered Before the University of Aberdeen in the Years 1896-1898<br><br>An antinomy thus reyeals itself - that of the teleological and the mechanical. The conscious automaton theory the result of the naturalists preference for materialistic terminology. Attempts to find a half-way through loopholes within the mechanical theory turn out to be futile; Summary and Reflexions; Abstract Dynamics does not furnish us with a Natural Philosophy, but with a descriptive instrument of uncertain range. Facts cannot be maimed to fit it, but it must be modified to suit them; Even what can be mechanically described need not be, and experience may convince us that it is not, mechanically produced; It is impossible to divest living beings of "internal determinations and grounds of determination." Descartes' distinction of cafisa formalis and cawa eminens. Physics recognises only the former, and resolves that into an equation. The latter, being excluded from its premisses, is supposed to be excluded from existence. On this fallacy the doctrine of conscious automatism is built up. Inertia not a fact but an ideal; Conservation of energy essentially a law of exchanges. That the whole energy of the universe is constant in amount and 'phenomenal' in character, not proven; The theoretical physicist having eliminated causation, must not dogmatise about it. The crux of irreversibility suggests that the world is not a mere mechanism. The physicist only describes the utterances of res things and the after-course of these utterances, so far as left alone. He is obliged to admit interference, but prefers a maximum breach of continuity far off rather than orderly direction now; Such direction impossible if all the beings in the objective universe are inert No warrant for preferring dead things rather than living as the type of such beings; and if we want to understand the world and not merely to calculate it, we must start from some other type; The mathematical bias the source of naturalism. It can only be corrected by observing how it has arisen. Mechanism by itself is chaotic and meaningless. With mind first come law and order. And mind we have seen implied as a vis directrix, at least, in evolution, in natural selection, in psychophysics<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.