On this page
- Departments (1)
-
Text (4)
- Untitled
-
* See; his Theory of Pojmlation, nn e-ss...
-
m)t Ms
-
AMTD TIIE FEIGNS. EancitfiON somewhere n...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Comte's Positive Philosophy. B Y Gr. H. ...
of a distinct tissue . But there reigns _extreme confusion and difference with regard to the general properties of vegetative life . " The two capital functions of Vegetative Life are those which , in their constant connexion and antagonism , correspond with the definition of Life itself : 1 st . Absorption , internally , of those materials drawn from the surrounding medium , which , after their gradual assimilation , result in what we call nutrition or growth . 2 nd . The exhalation , externally , of those molecules which are not assimilated , or are produced by disassimilation in the waste of tissues . No other fundamental notion enters the idea of Life , if we separate from it , as we ought , all ideas relative to animal life , which , as a more special modification , cannot affect the general problem .
" In no organism can the assimilable materials be directly incorporated , neither at the place of absorption nor under their primitive form ; their assimilation requires a certain displacement , and a preparation accomplished during the passage . It is the same , inversely , with exhalation , which presupposes that the particles become useless to a certain portion of the organism , are finally exhaled from another portion , after having undergone , in the passage , certain indispensable modifications . In this respect , as in so many others , it seems to me that great exaggeration has been made of
the distinction between the animal and vegetable organism , the more especially when it has been attempted to make digestion an essential character of animality . For , in forming the most general notion of digestion , which must extend to all preparation of aliments indispensable to their assimilation , it is quite clear that this preparation exists in the vegetable as well as in the animal , although less profound and varied , in consequence of the simplification of the aliments and of the organism . The same remark applies to the movement of the fluids . "
To these two functions of absorption and exhalation , ( between which we must necessarily interpose assimilation , as the result of absorption , ) we must add a third , which , issuing out of Assimilation , presents three great aspects : Growth , Generation , Death ; all dependent upon cell-multiplication , and varying according to a law I hope some day to demonstrate , with the aid of my friend Herbert Spencer ' s discovery , succinctly expressed by him in the formula , individuation is antagonistic to reproduction . * In passing from the study of the functions of Organic Life to the more complex phenomena of results , we enter a new , a more difficult field ; and one in which the present state of the science is necessarily less perfect .
For to take the most immediate result , that , namely , which consists in the state of simultaneous and continuous composition and decomposition , characteristic Of "Vegetative X * ife , huw cau it be thoroughl y _analyrcd , while assimilation on the one hand , and the secretions on the other , are so imperfectly studied ? Or , passing to the question of animal heat , which may be considered as a second result of the spontaneous action of bodies to maintain , within certain limits , their necessary temperature , in spite of the thermometric variations of the ambient meelium ;—this , also , has to be correctly analyzed . Considered under their most general aspect , the
production and preservation of animal heat result from the ensemble of the physico-chemical acts which characterize organic life ; so that every living body presents a real chemical laboratory , capable of spontaneously maintaining its temperature , as a consequence of the phenomena of composition antl decomposition , without regard to external temperature . And what is said of Heat applies equally to Electricity : the undoubted presence and participation of which in the organism , has led to so many chimerical hypotheses on the supposed identity of electricity with the Vital Force , with nervous aetion , & c .
From the study of Organic Life , we pass to that more complex and special class of phenomena calleel llelative or Animal Life . Antl in conformity with the philosophic rules already laiel down , our first object must be to ascertain what are its fundamental anel distinctive phenomena : they are locomotion ami sensation , dependent upon two fundamental properties , contractility antl sensibility , belonging to two peculiar tissues , the muscular and the nervous . In tliose few words the whole subject is resumed . The positive biologist recognises in contractility and sensibility two special and distinctive properties , which must be accepted—at any rate provisionallyas ultimate facts , no move admitting of question or of explanation , than the ultimate facts of gravity , heat , & e . The value of this distinction I cannot hope will be appreciated without some further elucidation ; and its capital importance induces me tt ) dwell on it awhile .
Comte remarks—ami the remark is immensely significant—that thc discovery of gravitation , the first great acquisition of positive Physics , was contemporaneous with the discovery of the circulation of the blood—the first fact which rendered positive Biology possible ; and yet what immense inequality iu the progress of the two sciences since that day when the starting point of both was reached ! Nor is this inequality solely antl directly owing to the greater complexity of Hiology ; but also tt ) the philosophic
Method which presided over the evolution of Physics , compared with the vague metaphysical Method which has not yet ceased in Biology—a consequence , let me add , of that very complexity . Nti _tme inquires into the nature of gravitation , or into its cause ; to detect its law is deemed sufficient ; but physiologists are incessantly inquiring into the nature and cause of contractility antl sensibility , unable as they are to conceive these phenomena as two ultimate facts—properties of two special tissues . The only distinction to be drawn between these vital properties anel the general
Comte's Positive Philosophy. B Y Gr. H. ...
physical properties is , that they are more special , but this specialit y does not make them more explicable , for it is always in exact harmony with the corresponding speciality of the structure : it is only muscular tissue that presents the phenomenon of contractility ( or , more rigorously stated , it is only Fibrine ); it is only nervous tissue that presents the phenomenon of sensibility . All those physical and chemical hypotheses that have been invented to explain contractility and sensibility , have been as unp hilosophic as the ancient efforts to explain gravitation and chemical affinity . For , as Comte truly says , after all they only represent vaguely the mechanical transmission of impressions produced on the nervous extremities , but do not in any degree explain perception , which thus remains evidentl y untouched , although it is really the most essential element of sensation . A certain vague sense of the vanity of these _atterfipts to explain the phenomena of sensation has caused an indignant reaction on the part of the metaphysicians , and by enlisting the prejudices of the majority against what is styled Materialism , has very seriously obstructed the tranquil path of inquiry . Every one feels thought are not electricity , are the brain as bile is secreted by the liver . " He knows that sensation is unlike all other things . He needs no revelation of Science to tell him that it is different from electricity ; and intimately persuaded of its speciality , he lends a willing ear to any harmoniously-worded explanation offered by the metaphysician as to its being an " immaterial principle , " an " o ' ev-informing spirit , " a mysterious something which , whatever it may be , is assuredly not " blind unconscious matter . " I confess that I have always had great scorn for what is called " Materialism" —equal , indeed , to that I felt for " Immaterialism "; and I have often called the quarrel a frivolous and vexatious dispute about words . But it was more than that . Though men squabbled about words , there were fundamental ideas working under them antagonistically ; and , on the whole , I think the metaphysicians had more reason on their side than we on the other gave them credit for . Absurd as their ( e immaterial principle superadded to the brain" must be pronounced , it had this merit , that it kept the distinctive speciality of the phenomena of sensation in view , and preserved it from the unscientific That " blind unconscious torious argument , in spite of the aphorism amounted to this , —blind matter cannot see , matter cannot be conscious . ) To any one who looks steadily tion , however , it may be shown that , as a matter of fact , the nervous tissue , and that only , being sensitive , the biological proposition simply is , that " sensitive matter can be sensitive . " To claim for this tissue any superadded entity named Thought , is to desert the plain path of observation for capricious conjecture . Why not call Strength an immaterial principle superadded to muscular tissue , if you are to call Thought one 1 The muscular action , and the nervous action , are two special phenomena belonging to special tissues . Science can tell you no more . If your mind is dissatisfied therewith , and demands more recondite explanation , invent one to please yourself , and then invent one for heat , for attraction , for every phenomenon you conceive ; the field is open ; imagination has widesweeping wings ; but do not palm off on us your imagination as science ! What the metaphysician says in respect of the essential speciality of the phenomena of thought and sensation—their complete distinction from other physical phenomena—is therefore to be admitted as true . He builds on this basis an absurd superstructure ; but the basis we cannot destroy . On the other hand , what the physiologist says respecting the identity of thought and nervous aetion is equally indestructible . That is his basis . Combine the two schools into one , and you have the Positive Philosopher who says , " Sensibility is an ultimate fact , not explicable , not to be assigned to a knowablc cause , but to be recognised as the property of a special tissue—the nervous . " As far as the religious application of this scientific conception is concerned , Locke long ago pointed out how it was as easy to conceive God endowing matter with thought as spirit with thought . All that the metaphysicians claim is the speciality of the phenomena of thought—their _difference from the phenomena of inorganic matter—and this the positive _biologist claims also . an intense conviction that not mere vibrations , are not coarse hypotheses of some materialists _, matter" could not think , was held as a vie the assumption implied in the sensation and " secreted by epithets ( for unconscious at the ques-
Ar02204
* See; His Theory Of Pojmlation, Nn E-Ss...
* See ; his Theory of Pojmlation , nn _e-ssay reprinte : < l from the ; Westminster Review , giving tho oullino of un _cluborato work upon which ho lias long been onguged .
M)T Ms
m ) _t Ms
Amtd Tiie Feigns. Eancitfion Somewhere N...
AMTD TIIE _FEIGNS . _EancitfiON somewhere notices the _soothimr effect of Nature ho issues from the tumult and cart on ho quietly ; she ; seems to say to Lying amid tho ferns , half in reverie :, anel half in philosophic observation , that sentence waa recalled to me . Wt ; wero two errant philosop hers rambling in search of health anel pence . It diel not appear tei me that the theatres , with very legitimate actors , or the operas with the thorinometei at sueh altitude , were likely to give nu ; pence ; ho I quitted _jjondon , accompanied by a friend , antl buried myself in the sylvan solitudes ol Windsor . I allude to this for tht ; sake of urging the unhappy reader , forced to Hummer in London , to follow our example :, and snatch a Saturday , Sunday , anel Monday , ( more if he can , less if ho can't ) in a wise , p leasant , and healthful walk . There is no such going to church as this ! I" - " Cathedral of Immensity , your faeo towards the sky , your body lazily ros of life :, and sees her processes going him , " Why so hot , little SirP " upon man as
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 7, 1852, page 22, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07081852/page/22/
-