The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-01-20

sors. More attention. therefore. began to
! be paid to the protests of writers like
| Hsrbart and Schopenhauer. who. even in
the hour OF its triumph, had criticised and
| attacked the prevailing philosophy. Again,
| the physical sciences were advancing by
leaps and bounds" and there was a
growing inclination to believe in the uni
| versal validity of the mechanical methods
OF explanation to which they owed their
| success. And even in those sociological
ami historical studies to which the idealis-
| tic philosophy had given so great an i'm
petus. the progress of empirical research
| and the increase of the materials of
| knowledge caused much of the work of
! Hegel and his followers TO seem made
| quate. If not entirely 10 set it aside Even
| in Germany. where the new ideas had
| taken a distinctly philosophical shape,
| they seemed TO lose their hold in the con-
| troversies that attended the breaking up
Of the Hegelan school; and in other coua-
| tries where they never found such a sys-
| tematic expression, they were even less
| able to resist the attack now made upon
| them. Furthermore. as I have already
| indicated writers of an idealistic tenden-
cy, in their recoil from the enlightenment,
had devoted themselves so much to an
| appreciation of institutions derived from
the past that they seemed to have no eyes
| for the defects of these institutions. and
to confuse evolution with restoration.
The general result of all these influences
was. then. to discredit philosophy and ex-
| alt science. so far as might be, into its
place. Either the abstract methods of the
/ physical sciences were proclaimed as ade-
quate for the discovery of all truth. or. IL
| this was seen to be impossible. agnosti.
! cism was professed in regard to all sub
/ jects to which these methods could not
be applied. Even the phenomena of life
| were supposed to be capable of explana-
] tlon by the action and reaction OF the
parts or elements of the physical organ
| ism. and Huxley looked forward to the
time when man with all his spiritual en-
dowments should be shown to be only the
"cunningest of natures clocks" The new
science of psychophysics. which arose in
| Germany and has been cultivated with so
much zeal by Wundt and others in all civ
| ilized countries, seemed to carry the meth
cd of physics into the investigation of
mind, and some of its students were ready
to maiI-tain that 1t was the only psy-
chology that deserved the name of science.
Darwin's great work on the Origin of
Species" in so far as it set aside the idea
Of special creation and referred the ''pur-
! posiveness' of organic structures to a
| process in which the external environ
ment and not any inward power of self
adaptation, was the controlling factor.
/ cd tn hriu no IN ont RI
the same way of thinking. And he and
| his followers were not slow to apply the
| theory of natural selection to the life of
man, as well as to that of plants and ami
mails. Finally. the historical studies, which
were now cultivated with an energy and
| to an extent hitherto unexampled. and i'm
mensely extended the knowledge of the
process whereby the present has grown
out of the past, were invaded by similar
| spirit; and the historical method was
maintained to be a solvent which could
disintegrate all metaphysical conceptions
| of ethics politics or even of theology.
The account of the genesis of any idea
| was regarded as reducing its claims to
| the level of the elements or rudiments out
of which 1t had sprung. and thus as en-
| abling the scientific historian to explain,
| or explain away the spiritual by the
natural in all human life and experience.
All things appeared again to be pointing
| toward a system of thought which would
resolve ethics and psychology into phys
ioiogy and physiology into chemistry and
physics.
| At the same time the victory of this ten
| dency was always more apparent than
real. In the first place, "out of the eater
came forth meat''-that very advance of
| the special sciences, which in its earlier
stages had tended to throw all speculative
| thought into the shade, in the long run
caused the need of philosophy to be again
felt. In particular, the study Of develop
ment in the organic world, which had re-
ceived so great stimulus from the work
OF Darwin. could not be carried on With
| out the aid of higher conceptions than
were required for the guidance of the
! physicist. The hypothesis Of natural Sc
lection might expel the idea of design in
| the cruder form of a special creation of
every distinct species; and the emphasis
| which II had laid upon the outward con-
ditions of growth might seem unfavorable
| to the higher conception of an immanent
| theology of the organism: but II was con-
| fessed by its author to be an incomplete
theory Of development; and Darwin him
self when he turned his attention to the
evolution Of man, found it necessary to
supplement natural selection by what
might be called the converse theory of
sexual selection thus adding a principle
of cooperation TO his first principle Of
| competition. Mr.. Spencer, who defined
growth as process of indignation and diff
ferentiation. little as he might himself in
tend It. was really putting into popular
language the Hegeuan idea of evolution
an idea which necessarily involved the
conception of a self-determined end. Evo-
lutionists might cling. as they still cling,
to the belief that. though constantly and
necessarily speaking of purpose, they
could eliminate it from the result of their
Investigations by the hypothesis of Oar
win. or subsequently of Weissmann: b;it
| their discussions. especially when they
were extended to the historical develop
ment of man, could not but reawaken the
great controversy whether in the ultimate
explanation of things 1T is more reason
able to level up" or to level down." to
| explain the higher by the lower. or the
lower by the higher. That both explana-
tions are necessary. nay. that no theology
can be of much worth which does not pre-
suppose a thorough enquiry into the
casual connections of particular phenome-
ma was admitted by all modern idealists
But they began to press the question
Of fpa h1fa l.