New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1903-12-09


Of Oh intellectual PTosTess The only doctrine
RELATIVELY of all knowledge-is one common to him
ana sundry other thinkers Of earlier date and
he held it. But on all points that are distinctive
OF his philosophy I differ from him. deny his
intellectual progress into the three phases. theo-
IosiGal. metaphysical and positive, as superficial
ideal Of society hold in detestation Some OF his
marks seem to to be profound. but from every
InIhS which distinguishes Comteism a system
course of thought which ] can trace to NJ. Comics
y.b is Ine noenGe that results from meeting
At another time when he had no occasion to
defend himself from the misapprehensIon OF
others he remarked:
The vague idea Of that in which the various con-
de5nit OF philosophy agree may be rendered more
England as natural philosophy with that develop
NJ Comte admits the two co5sst Of as
essentially the same in kind yet by having put this
has given more Of that CHARACTER to Which, the he
anv opnio3 Is appIied WIth9ut expressing
ton. Il must be conceded that by the fact OF its
him bas bet the 9gaE OF knS"fge 9rganizsd by
than has the comparatively unorganized body OF
knowledge named natural philosophy.
From these statements the inference is possible
tnat II was Comics example which awakened
Spencer to the feasibility OF a synthesis OF the
scientific knowledge Of his time II IL had NOT
been for Won Baer's discovery in biology the
world might have found that such a synthesis
could be made just Well around other foci as
around the two which Spencer chose-homogene-
ity and heterogeneity; for it was plainly neces-
sary 20 MIN TO contrive some method by which
he could picture himself the progress OF the
universe. The universally OF law had ever
peen with me, says he, "a postulate carving
win II the correlative belief tact II not ayowed
III unity or method throughout nature" The
prominence given TO the Nebular Hypothesis In
the essay on Progress already cited becomes
significant in the light of a statement like this:
ora me great ald rendered by Won Baers formula
arose from It's higher generality: since Jnly
NheFe organic transformations had been ex-
pressed in the most general terms vas the v-av
OPENER ontQ tor seeing what they had in common in
organic TRANSFORMED tons That Is 10 say he
had peen tracing inorganic transformations
PACK 10 their hypothetical origin. and now he
nad obtained the link which connected these
through biology with the facts Of sociology in
"hlch he was already a specialist.
THE STARTING POINT FOR UNIFICATION.
In the condition of the universe presupposed
oy the Nebular Hypothesis he had the ideal of
mat indefinite. incOherent homogeneity utter
formlessness, unrelieved even nv q chemical
combination which was for him the only salts
factory starting place for speculation The
shghtest chemical change, the slightest motion
would make Of this parliamentary oneness
something different from what Il was before
one can mentally realize this modification. The
problem was TO account for II quasi-experf-
mentally. There must be a formula descriptive
other than 1t was. and there must be some ulti-
mate 1act IN this process TO which every change
IN II could be referred. This unity in formula
and ultimate fact is necessary IL philosophy be-
as Spencer defined it. the unihcaton of knovl-
ton by the empirical method he came to the
conclusion that they were all derivative In CON
sclousness from the Persistence Of Force This
phrase had a rather elaborate genesis In the
first place, K. F. Mohr and perhaps other physi-
cists early 1887 had discovered what came
TO be called the Law of the Conservation Of En-
a pai IO=c
one form was compensated by equivalent gain
or loss in energy of some other form so that
the total energy in nature remained always
the same. Spencer was dissatisfied with the
phrase because he distinguished two modes Of
force, the one mot a worker OF change
a mere space occupying force" the other "a
worker Of change actual or potential" and to
the latter he desired TO give the specific name
of energy. Besides the word conservatism
seemed to him to imply conserver and an act
Of conserving, and failed Ito imply the exist
ence of the force before the particular mani
festation of it which is contemplated in addi-
ton TO involving the "tacit assumption that
WITHOUT some act of conservation force would
disappear" He appealed 10 Professor Huxley.
who suggested the word persistence and thus
the phrase Persistence OF Force" stands in
SpenCer's works, though il fails 10 imply the
pre-existence of the force any time mani
tested" All experience in consciousness of the
external world is reasonable into experience Of
force, the persistence OF the conceptions of
matter and motion imply the unchanged bility of
force. though the fact that force itself can be
experienced only by muscular tension proves
that s il exists out of our consciousness" II
cannot be force as we know IT; that is 10
say, objects which cannot exert muscular ten
SIGN can exert force. any one observes on
lifting a heavy weight. Hence the Persistence
| of Force really means the persistence of some
cause which transcends human knowledge In
asserting it, said Spencer, we assert an un-
conditioned reality without beginning end
Then he added in almost the same breath: On
examining the data underlying rational theory
of things find them all at last receivable into
that datum without which consciousness was
shown to be impossible-the continued existence
OF an UnknOwable the necessary correlatlve
of the movable" But Unknowable OF
which any correlation is conceivable, according
TO Spencer's own definition is to that extent not
unknowabIe. Nor is ii any longer right 70 say
of IL that it is unconditional because II is con-
ditioned by the movable. II correlated with IL
Here can be seen the occasion for predicating
rCyer respecting that concerning which by
Spencer's hypothesis nothing could be predi-
cated It was not a slip of the pen. 1t was an
afterthought due to the inevitable breaking
down Of the empirical method
THE FORMULA OF EVOLUTION.
While the case stands thus with spencers
ultimate facts of philosophy. it is different with
his formula descriptive OF the progress of the
universe He was here we'll within the domain
of that knowledge which be acquired d.
rectly or by inference from experiment and OBJ
servation He could choose his starting point
and fix it definitely and he succeeded in the
statement Of a hypothetical Law which in spite
OF the criticism directed against it, has not been
shaken. In details his effort to exemplify the
truth of his proposition has failed Weissmanns
Investigations have restricted almost to the
point of uSelessness the doctrine OF heredlty
which could alone serve to render Spencer's
theory of consciousness possible. since he sup
posed the intuitions of space. time self and not
self TO be the result in consciousness or trans
mitted experimental knowledge Natural selec-
ton, the main support of evolution in biology,
with its scarcely yelled appeal TO final cause.
afF1r of tran iCfE