NATURAL PHILOSOPHY
_Time and Space._
We now come to natural philosophy. Here again Herr Duehring takes it
upon himself to be dissatisfied with his predecessors. He says
"Natural philosophy sank so low that it became barren dregs of poetry
and had fallen into the degraded rubbish of the sham philosophy of a
Schelling and the like, grubbing in priest-craft and mystifying the
public." Disgust has rid us of these deformities, but up to the
present it has been succeeded by instability, and "what is of concern
to the public at large is that the disappearance of a particularly
great charlatan merely gives an opportunity to a smaller but more
expert successor who repeats the production in another form."
Naturalists have little desire for "a flight into the kingdom of the
universe-comprehending ideas," and therefore indulge too freely in
speculations which "go to pieces." Thus complete salvation must be
found, and, fortunately, Herr Duehring is at hand.
In order to comprehend aright the following conclusions respecting the
unfolding of the universe in time and its limitation in space, we must
again turn our attention to certain portions of the "scheme of the
universe."
Eternity is ascribed to existence, in agreement with Hegel, what Hegel
calls "tiresome (schlecht) eternity," and this eternity is now
investigated. "The plainest form of an incontrovertible idea of
eternity is the piling up of numbers unlimitedly in arithmetical
progression. Just as we can give a complete unity to each number
without the possibility of repetition, so at every stage of its being
it progresses still further and eternity consists in the unlimited
manifestation of this condition. This sufficiently conceived eternity
has but one single beginning with one single direction. Although it is
not material to our concept to imagine a direction opposite to that in
which the progression piles up, this notion of a backward moving
eternity is only a hasty picture drawn by the imagination. Since it
must necessarily run in a contrary direction, it would have behind it
in each instance an endless succession of numbers. But this would be
inadmissible as constituting the contradiction of a calculated
infinity of numbers, and so it seems absurd to imagine a second
direction of eternity."
The first conclusion to be drawn from this conception of eternity is
that the chain of cause and effect in the universe must once have had
a beginning: an endless number of causes which have followed one
another endlessly is therefore unthinkable, "because innumerability is
thus considered as enumerated," therefore a final cause is proved.
The second conclusion is "the law of the definite number: the
accumulation of identical independent objects of an actual species is
only thinkable as being made up of a definite number of these
individual objects." Not only must the actual number of the heavenly
bodies be definite at a given time, but the total number of all
existent objects, the smallest independent particles of matter. This
last necessity constitutes the real reason why no composite body is
thinkable except as made up of atoms. All actual division has a fixed
limit and must have it, if the contradiction of a numerated
innumerability is to be avoided. On the same grounds not only must the
revolutions of the sun and earth be fixed as they have occurred up to
the present, even if they cannot be indicated, but all the periodical
processes of nature must have had a beginning somewhere, and all the
distinctions and complexities of nature which succeed each other must
similarly have had an origin. This must indisputably have existed from
eternity, but such an idea would be excluded if time consisted of real
parts and was not arbitrarily divided to accommodate the possibilities
of our understanding. It is different with time, self regarded, but
the facts and phenomena of which time is made up being capable of
differentiation can be enumerated. Let us conceive of a condition in
which no change occurs and which undergoes no alteration in its stable
identity; the time concept then becomes transformed into the general
notion of existence. What is the result of piling up an empty duration
of time is not discoverable. So far, Herr Duehring writes and he is
not a little edified concerning the significance of these discoveries.
He hopes that "it is perceived as a not insignificant truth," and
later on says, "One should note the very simple phrases by which we
have helped the concept of immortality and the criticism of it to a
point at present unknown, through the sharpening and deepening of the
simple elements of the universal conception of time and space."
We have helped! This deepening and sharpening! Who are we? In what are
we manifest? Who deepens and who sharpens?
"Thesis--the world has a beginning in time and is bounded by space.
Proof--If one suppose that the world has no beginning in time he is
bound to grant infinity to each point of time, and so an infinite
succession of things has passed away in the universe. But infinity of
a series consists in the impossibility of its completion by successive
syntheses. Therefore an eternal progression of the world is
impossible. Hence a beginning of the world is a necessary condition of
its existence, which was to be proved. Let us take the other concept.
The world now appears as an eternal given whole consisting of things
which have a simultaneous existence. Now we can conceive of the mass
of a quantity, which can only be regarded under certain conditions, in
no other way than by means of the synthesis of its parts, and we
conceive the totality of the quantity by means of the completed
synthesis or repeated additions of the unity to itself. Thus, in order
to conceive of the universe as a whole which fills all space, the
successive syntheses of the parts of an infinite universe must be
regarded as being completed, that is an eternity of time must in
calculating all coexisting things, be regarded as having existed, but
this is impossible. Therefore an unending aggregate of actual things
cannot be regarded as a given whole and therefore also not as
coexistent. A world is therefore extension in space which is not
unlimited and which has therefore bounds. And this was the second
thing to be proved."
These statements are copied from a well-known book which made its
appearance in 1781 and is entitled "The Critique of Pure Reason," by
Immanuel Kant. They can be read there in Part I, Division 2, second
section, second part. "First Antinomy of Pure Reason." To Herr
Duehring alone remains the name and fame of having pasted the law of
fixed numbers on one of the published thoughts of Kant and of having
made the discovery that there was once a time when time did not exist
but only a universe. For the rest, therefore, when we come across
anything sensible in Herr Duehring's exposition "We" means Immanuel
Kant, and the "present" is only ninety-five years old. Quite simple
indeed, and unknown until now! But Kant does not establish the above
statement by his proof. On the other hand, he shows the reverse,
namely, that the universe has no beginning in time and no end in
space, and he fixes his antinomy in this, the unsolvable contradiction
that the one is just as capable of proof as the other. People of small
calibre might be inclined to think that here Kant had found an
insuperable difficulty, not so our bold author of fundamental results
"especially his own." He copies all that he can use of Kant's antinomy
and throws the rest away.
The matter solves itself very simply. Eternity in time and endlessness
in space signify from the very words that there is no end in either
direction, forwards or backwards, over or under, right or left. This
infinity is quite different from an endless progression, since the
latter always has some beginning, a first step. The inapplicability of
this progression idea to our object is evident directly we apply it to
space. Infinite progression translated in terms of space is a line
produced continuously in a given direction. Is infinity in space
expressed in this way, even remotely? On the contrary it requires six
of these lines drawn from this point in three opposite directions to
express the dimensions of space and we should have accordingly six of
these dimensions. Kant saw this so plainly that he employed his
progression merely indirectly in a round about way to express the
extent of the universe. Herr Duehring on the contrary forces us to
accept his six dimensions of space and at the same time has no words
in which to express his contempt of the mathematical mysticism of
Gauss who would not content himself with the three dimensions of
space.
Applied to time, the series or row of objects, infinite at both
extremities, has a certain figurative significance. But let us picture
time as proceeding from unity or a line proceeding from a fixed point.
We can say then that time has had a beginning. We assume just what we
wanted to prove. We give a one-sided half-character to infinity of
time. But a one-sided eternity split in halves is a contradiction in
itself, the exact opposite of a hypothetical infinity, incapable of
contradiction. We can only overcome this contradiction by assuming
that the unity which we began to count the progression from, the point
from which we measure the line, is a unity taken at pleasure in the
series, a point taken at pleasure in the line. Hence as far as the
line or series is concerned it is immaterial where we put it.
But as for the contradiction of the "counted endless progression" we
shall be in a position to examine it more closely as soon as Herr
Duehring has taught us the trick of reckoning it. If he has
accomplished the feat of counting from minus infinity to zero, we
shall be glad to hear from him again. It is clear that wherever he
begins to count he leaves behind him an endless progression, and with
it the problem which he had to solve. Let him only take his own
infinite progression 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 etc. and try to reckon back to 1
again from the infinite end. He evidently does not comprehend the
requirements of the problem. And furthermore, if he affirms that the
infinite progression of past time is capable of calculation he must
affirm that time has a beginning for otherwise he could not begin to
calculate. Therefore he again substitutes a supposition for what he
had to prove. The idea of the calculated infinite series, in other
words Duehring's all-embracing law of the fixed number, is therefore a
contradiction in adjecto, is a self contradiction, and an absurd one,
moreover.
It is clear that an infinity which has an end but no beginning is
neither more nor less than an infinity which has a beginning but no
end. The least logical insight would have compelled Herr Duehring to
the statement that beginning and end are mutually necessary to each
other, like North Pole and South Pole, and that if one omit the end
the beginning becomes the end, the one end which the series has and
vice versa.
The entire fallacy would not be possible if it were not for the
mathematical practice of operating with an infinite series. Because in
mathematics one must proceed from the given and finite to that which
is not given and infinite, all mathematical series whether positive or
negative, begin with a fixed point otherwise one cannot calculate. The
ideal necessities of the mathematician however are very far from being
a law compulsory upon the universe.
Besides Herr Duehring will never succeed in imagining an infinity
without contradiction. In the first place, infinity is a contradiction
and full of contradictions. For example it is a contradiction that
infinity should be made up of finite things and yet such is the case.
The notion of a limited universe leads to contradictions just as much
as the notion of its unlimitedness, and each attempt to abolish these
contradictions leads, as we have seen, to new and worse
contradictions. But just because infinity is a contradiction, it is
without end, endlessly developing itself in time and space. The
abolition of the contradiction would be the end of infinity. Hegel
saw that very clearly, and covers the people who entered upon
intricate arguments about this contradiction with merited scorn.
Let us proceed. Now, time has had a beginning. What was before this
beginning? The unchangeable universe incomparable with anything else.
And as no changes occur in this condition the particular concept time
is transformed into the general concept existence. In the first place
we have nothing to do with the transformation which goes on in the
brain of Herr Duehring. We are not engaged with a concept of time, but
with actual time of which Herr Duehring cannot so easily dispose. In
the second place no matter how much the concept of time is transformed
into the general concept existence it does not bring us one step
nearer the goal. For the fundamental forms of all existence are space
and time, and a thing existing outside of time is as silly an idea as
that of a being outside of space. The Hegelian "past existence in
which there was no time" and the neo-Schelling "being beyond the scope
of thought" are rational conceptions compared with this being outside
of time. For this reason Herr Duehring goes to work very cautiously
"intrinsically it may be called time, but one cannot really call it
time, as time does not consist in itself of real parts but is merely
divided by us into parts to suit our own convenience," only a real
filling up of time with distinct facts makes it capable of
calculation. It is impossible to see the significance of piling up an
empty duration. But it does not matter anyway. The question is whether
the universe in this presupposed condition continues, that is
persists, through a period of time. We have long known that it is
useless to try and measure such empty space and to calculate without
plan or aim and just because of the tiresomeness of such a proceeding
Hegel calls this infinity "miserable." According to Herr Duehring time
exists only by virtue of change, not change in and through time.
Because time is different from change and independent of it, we can
measure it by the changes, because in order to measure we need
something different from that which is to be measured. And the time in
which no recognisible changes take place is very far from being no
time, on the other hand since it is free from other ingredients, it is
pure, that is to say, true time. Indeed if we want to contemplate time
as a pure concept separated from all foreign admixture, we are obliged
to eliminate all the various events which occur in time, either
successively or simultaneously, and thus imagine a time in which
nothing occurs. By this means we have not permitted the concept time
to be overcome by the general concept of existence, but we have
thereby arrived at a pure time concept. All these contradictions and
impossibilities are mere child's play compared with the confusion into
which he plunges the universe with its self-sufficient commencement.
If the universe was in a condition in which no change occurred in it,
how did it ever manage to get from that state to one of change?
Moreover, an absolute condition of absence of change existing from
eternity cannot possibly get out of that state unaided so as to pass
over to a condition of progress and change. A first cause of motion
must therefore have come from the outside, from beyond the universe,
which caused the movement. This first cause of motion is clearly only
another term for God, The God and the Beyond of which Herr Duehring
fancied that he had so nicely settled in his scheme of the universe,
return sharpened and deepened in his natural philosophy.
Further Herr Duehring says: "Where a fixed element of existence is
capable of measurement, it will remain in unalterable stability. This
is evident from material and mechanical force." The former quotation
gives, it may be incidentally mentioned, a good example of Herr
Duehring's axiomatic grandiloquence. Fixed quantities remain exactly
the same, the quantity of mechanical force, once in the universe, is
always the same. We will not dwell on this, so far as it is true,
Descartes knew and said it three hundred years ago as regards
philosophy, while in mechanical science the doctrine of the
conservation of energy has been preached for the last twenty years.
Herr Duehring has not improved upon it in so far as he limits it to
mechanical energy. But where was mechanical energy at the period of
unchangeableness? To this question Herr Duehring stubbornly refuses an
answer.
Where was the unchangeable mechanical force then, Herr Duehring, and
what was it busy about? Answer: "The original state of the universe,
or, better, the existence of unchangeable matter, not allowing of any
changes in time, is a question which no mind can pass except one which
sees the acme of wisdom in the destruction of its own powers."
Therefore you must either take my original condition with your eyes
shut, or I, the lusty Eugene Duehring, brand you as an intellectual
eunuch. Some people might be quite alarmed about this, but we who have
seen a few examples of Herr Duehring's powers, can let the elegant
abuse pass and reiterate the question, "But how about that mechanical
energy, Herr Duehring, if you please?"
Herr Duehring is staggered at once. In fact, he stammers, "There is no
proof of the actual existence of that original condition. Let us
remember that this is also the case with each new step in the series
with which we are acquainted. He therefore who will make difficulties
in the foregoing case may see that he does not avoid them in the
smaller apparent cases. Besides, the possibility exists that there are
successively graduated intermediate states inserted, and thus there is
a stable bridge by the means of which we can work backwards to the
solution of the problem. As a matter of fact this notion of stability
does not assist the main thought, but it is for us the fundamental
form of regular progression, and of each transition known so far, so
that we have a right to consider it as intermediate between the first
original state and its disturbance. But if we consider the independent
condition of equipoise from the point of view of mathematical concepts
as, admittedly, without independent existence, there is no need of
indicating the mode in which matter came into a dynamic condition."
Outside of the mechanics of matter a change in movement of matter
depends upon a change in the movement of the most insignificant
particles. "Up to the present we have no universal principle of
knowledge and we must therefore not be surprised if we are somewhat in
the dark as to these matters."
That is all that Herr Duehring has to say, and we should seek the very
pinnacle of wisdom not alone in a mutilation of the creative faculty,
but in blind superstition, if we were to let the matter pass with
these foolish evasions and statements. Absolute stability has no power
of change in itself, Herr Duehring admits this. The absolute condition
of equipoise possesses no means by which it can pass into a dynamic
state. What have we then? Just three false and foolish phrases.
In the first place, Herr Duehring says that to show the transition
from each most insignificant step in the chain of things with which we
are acquainted to the next presents the same difficulty. He seems to
think that his readers are infants. The proof of the transitions and
interrelations of the most insignificant links in the chain of
existence is just what constitutes the subject matter of natural
science. If there is an impediment anywhere, nobody, not even Herr
Duehring, thinks to explain the development as proceeding from
nothing, but on the other hand as only proceeding from transition,
change, and forward movement from a completed evolutionary stage.
Here, however, he undertakes to show with reference to matter that it
proceeds from absence of movement and therefore from nothing.
In the second place, we have the "stable bridge." This does not help
us appreciably over the difficulty, but we have a right to use it as a
bridge between rigid stability and motion. Unfortunately stability
consists in absence of motion, and the question as to the generation
of motion remains as dark a secret as before. And if Herr Duehring
shifts his no-movement at all to universal movement in infinitely
small particles and ascribes to this ever so long a duration of time,
we are still not the thousand part of an inch further from the place
whence we started. Without a creative act we can get nothing from
nothing, not even anything as small as a mathematical differential.
The bridge of stability is therefore not even a _pons asinorum_. Herr
Duehring is the only person able to cross it.
Thirdly, as long as the present theories of mechanics prevail, this
constitutes one of Herr Duehring's most reliable props, we cannot
indicate how anything passes from a state of quiescence to one of
motion. But the mechanical theory of heat teaches us that the movement
of the mass depends upon the movements of the molecules, (so that even
in this case movement proceeds from other movement and not from lack
of movement) and this Herr Duehring shyly points out might serve as a
bridge between the entirely static (the state of equipoise) and the
dynamic (self-movement). But here Herr Duehring leaves us entirely in
the dark. All his deepening and sharpening has dug a pit of folly and
we are brought up necessarily in "darkness." But Herr Duehring
troubles himself very little about that. He says right on the next
page, with considerable audacity that he has been able to endow the
self contained stability with real significance by means of the
properties of matter and the mechanical forces.
In spite of all these errors and confused statements we have still an
inspiring faith remaining that "The mathematics of the inhabitants of
other planets cannot rest on any axioms other than our own."
_Cosmogony, Physics, and Chemistry._
Proceeding we come to theories respecting the mode by which the world,
as it is to-day, came into being. A universal separation of matter
from one element was the notion of the Ionic philosophers, but, since
Kant, the conception of an original nebulous state has played a new
role and according to this gravitation and heat expansion have built
up the worlds, little by little and one by one. The mechanical theory
of heat of our time has fixed the origin of the earlier condition of
the universe with much greater precision.
In spite of all this "the universal condition of the gaseous form can
only be a point of departure for serious conclusions if one can define
the mechanical system of it more precisely beforehand. If not, the
idea becomes not only very cloudy, but the original nebula becomes
really in the progress of those conclusions denser and more
impenetrable."... For the present everything remains in the vagueness
and formlessness of an indefinite idea, and so with regard to the
gaseous universe we have only an insubstantial conception.
The theory of Kant that all existing worlds were created from a mass
of rotating vapor was the greatest advance made by astronomy since the
days of Copernicus. The idea that nature had no history in time was
then shaken for the first time. Up to then the worlds were fixed in
bounds and conditions from their very beginning, and though the
individual organisms on the separate worlds were transient, the
species remained unalterable. Nature was conceived as an apparently
limited movement and its motion seemed to be the repetition of the
same movements perpetually. It was in this conception which is entire
accord with the metaphysical mode of thought that Kant made the first
breach and so scientifically that most of his grounds of proof stand
good to-day. Really the theory of Kant is a mere hypothesis even
to-day. The Copernican theory of the universe has no longer any weight
and since the spectroscope discovered such glowing gaseous matter in
space all objections have been disposed of and scientific opposition
to Kant's theory has been silenced. Even Herr Duehring cannot produce
his universe without the nebulous state and he takes his revenge by
asking to be shown the mechanical system of this nebulous state and
because this cannot be done he inflicts all sorts of contemptuous
remarks upon this nebulous state. Unfortunately modern science cannot
show this system and please Herr Duehring. But there are many other
questions which it cannot answer. For example regarding the question
why toads have no tails it can only answer so far "Because they have
lost them." But if people get angry and say that this is all vague and
formless, a mere fanciful idea, incapable of being made definite and a
very poor notion, such views would not carry us a step further,
scientifically. Such insults and exaggerations are sufficiently
numerous. What is there to hinder Herr Duehring himself from
discovering the mechanical system of the original nebular state?
Fortunately we are informed that the nebular hypothesis of Kant "is
far from showing a fully distinct condition of the world-medium or of
explaining how matter arrived at a similar state." This is really very
fortunate for Kant who is to be congratulated on having been able to
trace the existing celestial bodies to the nebular condition, and who
yet does not allow himself to dream of the self-contained unchanged
condition of matter. It is to be remarked by the way that although the
nebular condition of Kant is supposed to be the original vapor-form of
matter, this is to be understood merely relatively. It is to be
understood on the one hand as the original vapor form of the heavenly
bodies, as they are at present, and on the other hand as the earliest
form of matter to which we have been able to trace our way backwards.
The fact that matter passed through an endless series of other forms
before arriving at the nebular state is not excluded from this
conception but is on the other hand rather included in it.
Herr Duehring is at an advantage here. Whereas science comes to a halt
at the existence of the nebulous state his quack science carries him
back to that "Condition of the development of the world which cannot
be called actually static in the present sense of the word but most
emphatically cannot be called dynamic. The unity of matter and
mechanical force which we call the world is, so to speak, a formula
of pure logic, to signify the self-contained condition of matter as
the point of departure of all enumerable stages of material progress."
We have obviously not yet got away from the original self-contained
condition of matter. Here it is explained as consisting of mechanical
force and matter, and this as a formula of pure logic, etc. As soon
then as the unity of matter and mechanical force is at an end
evolution proceeds.
The formula of pure logic is nothing but a lame attempt to make the
Hegelian categories "an Sich and fuer Sich" of use in a philosophy of
realism. In "an Sich" according to Hegel the original unity of a thing
consists; in "fuer Sich" begins the differentiation and movement of
the concealed elements, the active antithesis. We shall therefore
depict the original condition as one in which there is a unity of
matter and mechanical force and the transition to movement as the
separation and antithesis of these two elements. But we have not
thereby established the proof of the real existence of the fantastic
original condition but only this much that it exists according to the
Hegelian category "an Sich" and just as fantastically disappears
according to the Hegelian category "fuer Sich."
Matter, says Duehring, implies all that is real, therefore there is no
mechanical force outside of matter. Mechanical force is furthermore a
condition of matter. In the original condition where no change
occurred matter and its mechanical force were a unity. Afterwards when
the change commenced there was a differentiation from matter. Thus we
are obliged to be satisfied with these mystical phrases and with the
assurance that the self contained original state was neither static
nor dynamic, neither in a state of rest nor of motion. We are still
without information with regard to the whereabouts of mechanical force
at that period and how we arrived at a condition of motion from one of
rest without a push from the outside, that is without God.
Before the time of Herr Duehring materialists were wont to speak of
matter and motion. He reduces motion to mechanical force as its
necessary original form and so renders incomprehensible the real
connection between matter and motion which was also not evident to the
earlier materialists. Yet the thing is easy enough. Matter has never
existed without motion, neither can it. Motion in space, the
mechanical motion of smaller particles to single worlds, the motion of
molecules as in the case of heat, or as electric or magnetic currents,
chemical analysis or synthesis, organic life, each single atom of the
matter of the world--they all discover themselves in one or other of
the forms of motion or in several of them together at any given
moment. All quiescence, all rest, is only significant in relation to
this or that given form of motion. A body for example may be upon the
ground in mechanical quiescence, in mechanical rest. This does not
prevent its participation in the movements of the earth and of the
whole solar system, just as little does it prevent its smallest
component parts from completing the movements conditioned by the
temperature or its atoms from going through a chemical process. Matter
without motion is just as unthinkable as motion without matter. Motion
is just as uncreatable or indestructible as matter itself, the older
philosophy of Descartes proclaimed precisely that the quantity of
motion in the world has been fixed from the beginning. Motion cannot
be generated therefore it can only be transferred. If motion is
transferred from one body to another, one may as far as it is
regarded as transferring itself, as active, consider it as the
original cause of motion, but so far as it is transferred, as passive.
This active motion we call force; the passive, expression of force. It
is therefore just as clear as noon that force is just as great as its
expression because the same motion fulfils itself in both.
A motionless condition of matter is therefore one of the hollowest and
most absurd notions, a mere delirium. In order to arrive at it one is
obliged to consider the relative absence of motion in the case of a
body lying on the ground, as absolute rest, and then to transfer this
idea to the entire universe. This is made easier by the reduction of
motion in general to mere mechanical force. By the limitation of
motion to mere mechanical force we can conceive of a force as at rest,
as confined, as momentarily ineffective. If for example in the
transference of motion which transference is very frequently a
somewhat complicated process in the carrying out of which various
intermediate steps are necessary, one may stay the actual transference
at a chosen point and stop the process, as for example if one loads a
gun and delays the moment when the charge shall be set at liberty by
the pull of the trigger, through the firing of powder. Therefore one
may conceive of matter as being loaded with force in the unprogressive
static period, and this Herr Duehring appears to mean by his unity of
matter and force if indeed he means anything at all. This notion is
absurd, since it pictures as absolute for the entire universe a
condition which is by nature only relative and to which therefore only
a portion of matter can be subjected at one and the same time. Let us
look at it from this point of view and we do not escape the difficulty
of explaining first how the universe came to be loaded and in the
second place, whose finger drew the trigger. We may revolve all we
please but under the guidance of Herr Duehring we always come back
over and over again to the finger of God.
From astronomy our realist philosopher passes on to mechanics and
physics and complains that the mechanical theory of heat has brought
us no further in the course of a generation than the point which
Robert Mayer reached by his own efforts. Moreover the whole thing is
very obscure. We must "always remember that with conditions of the
movement of matter statical conditions are also given and that these
last are not measured in mechanical work. If we have earlier typified
nature as a great workwoman, and we still hold to the statement, we
must now add that the static condition, the condition of rest, does
not imply any mechanical labor. We are again without the bridge from
the static to the dynamic and if latent heat, so called, is up to the
present a stumbling block to the theory we can recognise a lack which
may be denied in the cosmic process."
This whole oracular utterance is again merely an outpouring of bad
science which very clearly perceives that it has got itself into a
place from which it cannot be saved by creating motion from a state of
absolute freedom from motion, and is ashamed to call upon its only
saviour, the Creator of heaven and earth. If in mechanics, heat
included, there is no bridge to be found from statics to dynamics,
from equipoise to motion, why should Herr Duehring be obliged to find
a bridge from his condition of absence of motion to motion? Thus he
would have the luck to escape from his dilemma.
In ordinary mechanics the bridge from statics to dynamics is--the push
from the outside. If a stone of the weight of a hundred grammes be
lifted ten meters high and then flung free so that it should remain
hanging in a self-contained condition and in a state of rest, you
would have to appeal to a public of sucking infants to declare that
the existing condition of that body represents no mechanical labor and
that its removal from its earlier condition has no measure in
mechanical work. Any passerby would tell Herr Duehring that the stone
did not come on the string by its own efforts and the first good hand
book in mechanics would inform him that if he let the stone fall
again, the latter in its fall does just as much mechanical work as is
necessary to lift it to the height of ten meters. The very simple fact
that the stone is suspended represents mechanical force in itself,
since if it remain long enough, the string breaks, as soon as it, as a
result of its chemical constitution, is no longer strong enough to
hold the stone. All mechanical phenomena, may, we must inform Herr
Duehring, be reduced to just such simple fundamental forms, and the
engineer is still unborn who cannot discover the bridge from statics
to dynamics as long as he has sufficient initial force at his
disposal.
It is quite a hard nut and bitter pill for our metaphysician that
motion should find its measure in its opposite rest. It is such a
glaring contradiction, and every contradiction is an absurdity in the
eyes of Herr Duehring. It is nevertheless true that the hanging stone
by reason of its weight and its distance from the ground represents a
means of mechanical movement sufficiently easily measured in different
ways, as for example through gravity direct, through glancing on an
incline or through the undulation of a wave--and it is just the same
with a loaded gun. The expression of motion in terms of its opposite
rest presents no difficulty at all to the dialectic philosophy. The
whole contradiction in its eyes is merely relative, for absolute
rest, complete equipose does not exist. The movement of the particles
strives towards equipose, the movement of the mass in turn destroys
the equipose, so that rest and equipose where they occur are the
results of arrested motion, and it is evident that this motion is
capable of being measured in respect of its results, of being
expressed in itself and of being restored in some form or other
external to itself. But Herr Duehring would never be satisfied with
such a simple explanation of the matter. Like a good metaphysician he
creates a yawning gulf between motion and equipose which does not
really exist and then wonders if he can find no bridge across the
self-created chasm. He might just as well bestride his metaphysical
Rosinante and hunt the "Ding an Sich" of Kant since it is in the last
analysis nothing else than this which stands behind the undiscoverable
bridge.
But what about the mechanical theory of heat and of latent heat which
is a "stumbling block" in the path of the theory?
If one convert a pound of ice at freezing point under normal
atmospheric pressure into a pound of water of the same temperature by
means of heat there vanishes a quantity of heat which could heat the
same pound of water from 0 deg. centigrade to 79 deg. centigrade, or
seventy-nine pounds of water one degree centigrade. If one heat this
pound of water to boiling point, that is, to one hundred degrees
centigrade and change it into steam of the heat of one hundred degrees
centigrade there vanishes up to the time when the last of the water is
changed into steam a seven fold greater quantity of heat, capable of
raising the temperature of 537.2 pounds of water one degree. This
dissipated heat is called latent. It is transformed, by cooling the
steam, into water again, and the water into ice, so the same mass of
heat which was formerly latent, is again set free, that is, as heat
capable of being felt and measured. This setting free of heat by the
condensation of steam and the freezing of water is the reason that
steam if it is cooled off at 100 deg. transforms itself little by little
into water, and that a mass of water at freezing point is but slowly
transformed into ice. These are the facts. The question is what
becomes of the heat while it is latent?
The mechanical theory of heat according to which the heat of a body at
a certain temperature is dependent upon the greater or less vibration
of the smallest physical parts (molecules) a vibration which can,
under certain conditions, be transformed into some other form of
motion, shows the whole thing completely, that the latent heat has
performed work, has been expended in work. By the melting of the ice
the close connection of the separate particles is broken asunder and
changed into a loose relationship; by the conversion of water into
steam at boiling point a condition is entered where the separate
molecules exercise no noticeable influence upon each other, and under
the influence of heat fly from one another in all directions. It is
now evident that the separate molecules of a body in the gaseous state
are endowed with much greater energy than in the fluid state, and in
the fluid state than in the solid. Latent heat is therefore not
dissipated, it is merely transformed and has taken on the form of
molecular elasticity.
As soon as conditions are at an end under which the molecules can
exercise this relative freedom with regard to each other as soon
namely as the temperature falls below one hundred degrees to zero,
this elasticity becomes released and the molecules come together with
the same force with which they formerly flew apart, but only to
appear again as heat, as exactly the same quantity of heat as was
latent before. This explanation is of course a hypothesis, as is the
whole mechanical theory of heat, in so far as no one has yet seen a
molecule, much less a molecule in motion. Like all recent theories,
this hypothesis is full of flaws but it can at least offer an
explanation which does not conflict with the uncreatability and
indestructibility of motion and it is able to give an account of the
whereabouts of the heat in the transformation. Latent heat is
therefore by no means an obstacle in the way of the mechanical theory
of heat. On the contrary this theory for the first time provides a
rational explanation of the subject and an obstacle arises from the
fact in particular that the physicists make use of the old and
ineffective expression "latent heat" to signify the heat transformed
into some other shape by molecular energy.
The static conditions of the solid, liquid and gaseous states
therefore represent mechanical work in so far as mechanical work is a
measure of heat. Thus the solid crust of the earth, like the water of
the ocean, represents in its present form a certain quantity of heat
set free which implies the same quantity of mechanical force. By the
passing of the vaporous state which was the original form of the earth
into the fluid state and later into a condition, for the most part
solid, a certain quantity of molecular energy was set free in space,
the difficulty of which Herr Duehring whispers does not therefore
exist. We are frequently brought to a stop in our cosmic observations
by lack of knowledge, but nowhere by insuperable theoretical
difficulties. The bridge from statics to dynamics is therefore the
push from the outside caused by the cooling or heating occasioned by
other bodies which influence certain objects in equipoise. The
further we explore Herr Duehring's philosophy, the more impossible
appear all his attempts to explain rotation from absence of rotation,
or to discover the bridge by which that which is purely static,
self-contained, can without disturbance come to be the dynamic, in
motion.
We should here be glad to get rid of the whole self-contained
condition business. Herr Duehring, however, goes to chemistry and
gives us three permanent natural laws established by the philosophy of
realism as follows, 1. The constant amount of matter in the universe.
2. The simple chemical elements, and 3. The mechanical forces are
unchangeable.
Therefore the impossibility of creating or destroying matter, the
simple forms of its existence as far as they exist, and motion, these
old, well known facts, inadequately expressed, that is the only
positive thing which Herr Duehring is in a position to offer us as a
result of his real philosophy of the inorganic world. All these things
we have long known. But what we have not known is that they are
permanent laws and as such natural properties of the system of things.
It is just the same thing over again as in the case of Kant. Herr
Duehring takes some universally known expressions, pastes the Duehring
label on them and calls them "fundamentally original results and
views, system shaping thoughts, profound science."
We have not long to hesitate on this account. Whatever deficiencies
the most profound science and the best contrived social theories may
have, for once Herr Duehring can say precisely "The quantity of gold
in the universe must always remain the same and cannot be increased or
diminished any more than matter in general. But unfortunately Herr
Duehring does not tell us what we may buy with this gold."
_The Organic World._
"From mechanics in rest and motion to the relation of sensation and
thought there is a uniform progression of interruptions." With this
assurance Herr Duehring spares himself from saying anything further
about the origin of life, though one might reasonably expect that a
thinker who has followed the development of the world from its
self-contained condition, and who is so much at home with the other
heavenly bodies would be here at home also. Besides this assurance is
only half true in so far as it is not yet completed by means of the
log line of Hegel, of which mention has been made already. In all its
gradations the transition from one form of evolution to another
remains a leap, a differentiating movement. So in the transition from
the mechanics of the worlds to those of the smaller amounts of matter
in each single world, just so also in that from the mechanics of the
mass to that of the molecule--the motion which we examine particularly
in physics, so-called, heat, light, electricity, magnetism, just in
the same way also the transition from the physics of the molecule to
the physics of the chemical atom is completed by a differentiating
leap, and it is just the same with the transition from ordinary
chemical action to the chemistry of albumen which we call life. Within
the sphere of life the changes become less frequent and less
remarkable. Therefore Hegel must again correct Herr Duehring.
The idea of purpose furnishes Herr Duehring with his conception of the
transition to the organic world. This is again borrowed from Hegel,
who in his "logic"--teachings of the concept--mingled with teachings
of teleology or of purpose, passes over from chemistry to life.
Whichever way we look we discover Herr Duehring to be in possession
of Hegelian lore which he gives forth without any embarrassment as his
own fundamental philosophy. It would be too long a task to find out
here just how far the application of the ideas of purpose is correctly
stated and applied to the organic world. The application of the
Hegelian "inner purpose" at all events is evident, that is, of a
purpose which is imported into nature not through a consciously acting
third party, like the wisdom of Providence, but which is inherent in
matter itself, which among people who are not well versed in
philosophy proceeds to the unthinking supposition of a conscious and
all-wise agent; the same Herr Duehring who breaks out into unmeasured
moral indignation at the least tendency towards spiritism on the part
of other people, tells us that "sex sensations are certainly mainly
directed towards the gratification which is bound up in their
exercise." He tells us moreover that "poor Nature must always hold the
objective world in order" and it has besides to perform acts which
require more subtlety from Nature than we usually attribute to her.
But nature knows not only why she does this and that. She has not only
her housemaid's duties to perform, she has not only subtlety, which is
a very pretty accomplishment, in subjective conscious thought, she has
also a will, for "we must regard the additional natural desires which
occur, such as feeding and propagation, not as directly but as
indirectly willed." We now arrive at a consciously thinking and acting
nature, and we therefore stand right at the bridge, not indeed between
the static and dynamic but between pantheism and deism, or perhaps
Herr Duehring is pleased to indulge himself in a little
"natural-philosophical half-poetry."
Impossible. All that the realistic philosophy has to say on organic
nature is limited to a war against this natural philosophical
half-poesy against "Charlatanism with its wanton superficialities and
pseudo-scientific mysticism, against the poetic features of
Darwinism."
Darwin comes in for a share of blame chiefly because he transferred
the Malthusian theory of population from political economy to natural
science, because he is entangled by his notions of breeding, so that
his work is a sort of unscientific half-poetic attack against design
in creation, and that the whole of Darwinism, after what he has
borrowed from Lamark has been deducted, is a piece of brutality aimed
against humanity.
Darwin had brought home with him as the result of his scientific
journeys the conclusion that species of plants and animals are not
fixed but are subject to variations. In order to pursue this idea he
entered upon experiments in the breeding of plants and animals. Just
for this reason England has become a classic land. The scientists of
other countries, Germany, for example, have nothing to offer
comparable with England in this respect. Moreover, most of the
conclusions belong to the last century so that the establishment of
the facts presented few difficulties. Darwin found that this
artificial breeding produced differences in the species of plants and
animals greater than occur among those which are universally
recognised as belonging to different species. Therefore it was, up to
a certain point, proved that species can change and furthermore there
was established the possibility of a common ancestry for organisms
which partake of the characteristics of different species.
Darwin now examined the question whether there were not in nature
causes--which without the conscious intention of the breeder--might in
the course of time, by means of heredity, produce changes in the
living animal analogous to those produced by scientific breeding.
These causes he found in the disproportion between the enormous number
of germs made by nature and the small number of beings which actually
come to maturity. But as the germ struggles for its own development
there is of necessity a consequent struggle for existence, which not
only shows itself directly in the wear and tear of the body, but also
as a struggle for space and light, as in the case of plants. And it is
evident that in this fight those individuals have the best prospect of
coming to maturity and reproducing themselves which possess certain
qualities, perhaps insignificant, but advantageous in their fight for
existence. There is a tendency towards the inheritance of these
individual properties, and if they occur in several individuals of the
same species towards development in the direction once taken, by
virtue of the accumulated heredity, while the individuals which are
not possessed of these qualities succumb more easily and little by
little disappear in the struggle for existence. Thus a species
naturally changes by the survival of the fittest.
Against this theory of Darwin Herr Duehring urges that the origin of
the idea of the struggle for existence is, as Darwin himself
confessed, based on the views of the political economist and theorist,
Malthus, on the population question, and he covers it with all the
abuse appropriate to the clerical Malthusian views on keeping down the
population. Now it happens that Darwin never said that the cause of
the struggle for existence theory was to be sought from Malthus. He
only said that his theories respecting the struggle for existence are
the theories of Malthus applied to the entire vegetable and animal
world. How great a blunder Darwin made when he so naively accepted the
teachings of Malthus without examination may be seen from the fact
that there is no need to employ the spectacles of Malthus in order to
detect the struggle for existence in nature,--the contradiction
between the innumerable mass of germs which nature produces in such
prodigality and the slight number which can manage to reach maturity,
a contradiction which resolves itself into an apparently grim fight
for existence. And with regard to the law of wages the Malthusian
doctrines are widely advertised and Ricardo based his contentions upon
them,--so the struggle for existence in nature may find a standing
even without the Malthusian interpretation. Besides the organisms of
nature have their law of population, the establishment of which would
decide the theories of the development of species. And who gave the
decisive impetus in that direction? Nobody but Darwin.
Herr Duehring is on his guard against entering upon the positive side
of this question. Instead he must again find fault with the struggle
for existence. There can be no argument about a struggle for existence
between plants and the genial eaters of plants "in a sufficiently
accurate sense the struggle for existence only occurs within the
sphere of brutality, in so far as nourishment depends upon robbery and
consumption." And after he has reduced the concept struggle for
existence to these narrow limits he gives his wrath free play as
regards the brutality of this conception which he himself has narrowed
down to a brutal conception. But this moral wrath simply reacts on
Herr Duehring himself, the inventor of this sort of struggle for
existence. It is not Darwin therefore who seeks among the lower
animals the "conditions of the operations of nature" (as a matter of
fact Darwin would have included the whole of organic nature in the
struggle), but one of Herr Duehring's bugaboos. The expression
"struggle for existence" in particular excites Herr Duehring's lofty
moral scorn. That this actually exists among plants every meadow,
every cornfield and every wood can show him. We need not trouble about
the name, whether one call it "struggle for existence" or "lack of the
conditions of existence and want of mechanical realisation," but as to
how this fact operates as regards the maintenance or transformation of
species. With regard to this Herr Duehring persists in a
characteristically stubborn silence. We cannot trouble ourselves any
more about natural selection.
But "Darwinism produces its changes and differentiations out of
nothing." Darwin thoroughly understands that he is engaged with the
causes which have produced changes in individuals and in the second
place he is engaged with the mode in which such individual
differentiations tend to mark off a race, a genus, or a species.
Darwin moreover was less occupied in discovering these causes, which
up to the present are either entirely unknown or on which there is
only general information, than in discovering a rational form in which
to establish their reality, to embrace their permanent significance.
But Darwin ascribed too wide a reach to his discovery in this that he
made it an exclusive means of variation in species and neglected the
causes of individual differentiations from the general form. This
mistake however is common to most people who make a step forwards.
Next, if Darwin produces his changes in individual types out of
nothing and thereby excludes the wisdom of the breeder, the breeder on
his part must not only display his wisdom but he must produce out of
nothing real changes in plant and animal forms. But who has given the
impetus to the investigation as to whence these variations and
differentiations proceed? It is again no one but Darwin.
Lately the conception of natural selection has been broadened, by
Haeckel, in particular, and the variation of species has been shown to
be the result of actual change owing to adaptation and inheritance,
whereby adaptation is considered as the source of variations and
heredity as the conserving element in the process. Even this is not
correct in Herr Duehring's eyes. "Peculiar adaptation to the
circumstances of life as they are offered or withheld by nature
supposes impulses and facts which answer to the conception. Hence
adaptation is only apparent and actual causality does not elevate
itself above the lowest steps of physical, chemical and plant
physiology." It is again the name which provokes Herr Duehring. But
how does he deal with the matter? The question is if such changes do
take place in the species of organic beings or not. And again Herr
Duehring has no reply.
"If a plant in the course of its growth takes a direction by which it
gets the most light the result is nothing but a combination of
physical forces and chemical agents, and if we are to call it an
adaptation, not metaphorically but strictly, confusion is certain to
arise in the motion." This man is so exacting with other people
because he is quite well acquainted with the intentions of nature and
speaks of the subtlety of nature, even of its will. There is
confusion, indeed, but with whom, with Haeckel or with Herr Duehring?
And the confusion is not only spiritual but logical. We have seen that
Herr Duehring put forth all his efforts to make the purpose idea in
nature real. "The relation of means and end does not by any means show
a conscious intention." But what is adaptation without conscious
intention, without any intrusion of design of which he complains so
loudly, but an unconscious teleology?
If the color of tree frogs and leaf eating insects is as a rule green
and that of beasts that inhabit the desert sandy-yellow, and that of
polar animals white, they have certainly not come into possession of
this coloring intentionally or through any kind of mental process, on
the contrary the coloring can only be explained by means of the
operation of physical substances and chemical agents. And yet it
cannot be denied that by these colors these animals are particularly
adapted to the conditions in which they are and it is certain that
they are by their means rendered less visible to their enemies. Just
of a similar nature are the organs by which certain plants seize and
consume certain insects (the means being on their under side, suited
to this purpose and adapted to this end). Now if Herr Duehring insists
that the adaptation must be realised through the operation of thought,
he only says that the purpose must be carried out through mental
operation, must be conscious and intentional. Thus again, just as in
the philosophy of realism we arrive at the Creator with a purpose, at
God. Formerly this kind of declaration was called "deism" and Herr
Duehring says that we had not much regard for it, but it now appears
that the world has gone backwards in this respect also.
From adaptation we come to heredity and here according to Herr
Duehring Darwinism is quite out. "The whole organic world, Darwin
explained, came from a single germ, is, so to speak, the brood of a
single being. Independent similar products of nature according to
Darwin do not exist without heredity and his retrogressive philosophy
must come to a full stop when the end of the thread of ancestry is
reached, or the original vegetable form."
The statement that Darwin traced all existing organisms from one
original germ is to put it politely a piece of pure imagination on the
part of Herr Duehring. Darwin says distinctly on the last page of the
Origin of Species, Sixth Edition, that he regards all living beings
not as separate creations but as the descendants in a direct line from
some fewer beings and Haeckel makes a distinct advance on this
ascribes "an entirely distinct source for plants and another for the
animal kingdom" and on and between both of them "a number of original
stems each of which has developed independently from one single
primary monistic form." (History of Creation page 397.) This original
form of life Herr Duehring discovers solely to bring it into contempt
by paralleling it with the first man according to Jewish tradition,
Adam. Here, unfortunately for Herr Duehring, he does not know how this
original Jew turns out, according to Smith's Assyrian discoveries to
have been the original Semite, and that the entire Biblical story of
the Creation and the Flood has been shown to have been taken from a
legendary store common to the Jews, Babylonians, Chaldeans, and
Assyrians.
It is brought forward as a severe and irrefutable reproach to Darwin
that he is at an end where the thread of descent fails him.
Unfortunately the whole of our science deserves the same reproach.
When the thread of descent fails it it is "at an end." It has not yet
come to the point of creating organic beings without an ancestry, not
even once has it been able to make simple protoplasm or other
albuminous bodily forms out of the chemical elements. It can only say
therefore with any certainty regarding the origin of life, that it
must have come about by a chemical process. But perhaps the
philosophy of realism can give us some assistance here since it is
engaged with independent organic natural products, without any descent
one from another. How can these come into being? By original creation?
But up to the present not even the most audacious advocates of
spontaneous generation have claimed to create in this way anything
except bacteria, fungi, or other very elementary organisms, but not
insects, birds, fish or mammals. If these homogeneous products of
nature--it is understood for all this discussion that they are
organic--are not related through descent, they or their ancestors,
then "where the thread of descent breaks" they must have been placed
in the world by a separate act of creation, and this again requires a
creator, what we call "deism."
Herr Duehring further explains that "it was a piece of superficiality
on the part of Darwin to make the mere fact of the sex-composition of
qualities the foundation for the existence of these qualities." Here
we have again a piece of pure imagination on the part of our profound
philosopher. On the contrary Darwin says that natural selection has to
do only with the maintenance of variations and not with their origin.
This new supposition however of things which Darwin did not say serves
to assist us to this deep idea of Duehring. "If a principle of
individual variation had been sought in the inner scheme of creation
it would have been an entirely rational idea. For it is natural to
unite the idea of universal generation with that of sex propagation,
and to regard the so-called original creation from the higher point of
view, not as absolutely antagonistic to reproduction but even as
reproduction itself." And the man who could write this is not ashamed
to reproach Hegel with writing jargon.
Let us call a halt to the vexatious and contradictory babble with
which Herr Duehring proclaims his wrath against the advance given to
science by the theory of Darwin. Neither Darwin nor his followers
among the natural scientists have any idea of belittling Lamark's
tremendous services, in fact they are the very people who first
restored his fame. But we are unable to ignore the fact that in the
time of Lamark science was still far from supplied with competent
material to enable it to answer the question of the origin of species
other than in a prophetic or, as it were anticipatory, manner. In
addition to the enormous amount of material in the realm of general,
as well as of that of anatomical, botany and zoology, accumulated
since that time, two entirely new sciences have since come into
existence--the investigation of the development of plant and animal
germs (embryology), and the investigation of the organic survivals in
the earth's crust which still remain. There is a distinct similarity
between the steps in the development of the organic germ to mature
organism, and the successive steps by which plants and animals succeed
each other in the history of the world. It is just this similarity
which has placed the evolution theory on its most secure foundations.
The theory of evolution is however still very young and it is beyond
question that upon further investigation the rigid Darwinian ideas
upon the origin of species will be considerably modified.
But what has the realist philosophy of a positive nature to contribute
with respect to the evolution of organic life? "The variation of
species is an acceptable supposition, but there exists, in addition,
the independent order of the products of nature belonging to the same
species without any intervention of descent." According to this we
are to conclude that products of unlike species, that is species which
vary, are descended from one another, but those of similar species
not. But even this is not altogether correct, for he ventures to say
of the varying species, "The part played by descent is on the contrary
a very secondary activity of nature." There is heredity, then, but it
is only to be reckoned as a factor of the second class. Let us be glad
that heredity of which Herr Duehring has said so much that is evil and
mysterious is at least let in by the back door. It is just the same
with natural selection, since after all his moral indignation with
respect to the struggle for existence by means of which natural
selection fulfils itself he suddenly exclaims, "The most important
constituent is to be found in the conditions of life and cosmic
conditions, while natural selection as set forth by Darwin may be
considered as secondary." Natural selection still exists, even if a
factor of the second class, like the struggle for existence, and the
clerical malthusian surplus-population theory. That is all, for the
rest Herr Duehring refers us to Lamark.
Finally, he warns against misuse of the terms metamorphosis and
evolution. Metamorphosis, he says, is a very obscure notion, and the
concept of evolution is only admissible in so far as a law of
evolution can be really proved. Instead of either of these expressions
we should employ the term "composition" and then everything would be
all right. It is the same old story over again, Herr Duehring is
satisfied if we change the names. If we speak of the evolution of the
chicken in the egg we give rise to confusion because we have only an
incomplete knowledge of the law of evolution. But if we speak of its
"composition" everything becomes clear. We must therefore say no
longer "this child is growing nicely" but, "he composes himself
splendidly," and we congratulate Herr Duehring upon the fact that he
is not only a peer of the author of the Niebelungen Ring in his
opinion of himself but in his own particular capacity is also a
composer of the future.
_Organic World (Conclusion)._
"One reflects upon our natural philosophical portion of positive
knowledge in order to fix it relatively to all one's scientific
hypotheses. Next in importance come all the actual acquisitions of
mathematics as well as the leading principles of exact science in
mechanics, physics and chemistry and particularly the scientific
results in physiology, zoology, and antiquarian investigation."
Herr Duehring speaks in this confident and decided fashion with
respect to the mathematical and scientific scholarship of Herr
Duehring. One cannot detect in its meager shape and in its scanty and
audacious results the extent of positive knowledge which lies behind.
Every time the oracle is consulted for a definite statement as regards
physics or chemistry we get nothing as regards physics but the
equation which expresses the mechanical equivalent of heat, and
concerning chemistry only this that all bodies are divisible into
elements and combinations of elements. He who can speak as Duehring
does about "gravitating atoms" shows at once that he is quite at a
loss to understand the difference between an atom and a molecule.
Atoms, of course, exist, not with respect to gravitation or any other
physical or mechanical form of motion, but only as concerns chemical
action. And if the last chapter on organic nature is read, the empty,
self-contradictory, assertive, oracular, stupid, circuitous absolute
nothingness of the final result lead one to the conclusion that Herr
Duehring talks about things of which he knows very little and this
conclusion becomes a certainty when we come to his proposal in the
course of his writing on organic life (biology) to use the term
"composition" instead of evolution. He who can make such a suggestion
as that gives evidence that he is not acquainted with the building up
of organic bodies.
All organic bodies, the very lowest excepted, develop from small cells
by the increment of visible pieces of albumen with a central cell. The
cell generally develops an outer skin and the contents are more or
less fluid. The lowest cell-bodies develop from one cell; the enormous
majority of organic beings are many-celled and among the lower forms
these take on similar, and among the higher forms greater variations
of, groupings and activities. In the human body for example are bones,
muscles, nerves, sinews, ligaments, cartilage, skin, all either made
up of cells or originating in them. But for all organic bodies, from
the amoeba which is a simple and for the most part unprotected piece
of albumen with a cell centre in the midst to man, and from the
smallest one-celled desmidian to the highest developed plant, the mode
is one and the same by which the cells propagate themselves, that is
by division. The cell centre is first laced across its midst, the
lacing which separates the centre into two knobs becomes stronger and
stronger and at last they become separated and two cell centres are
formed. The same occurrence takes place in the cell itself. Each of
the cell centres becomes the middle point of a collection of cell
stuff which by knitting ever closer becomes combined with the other,
and finally both of them part and live on as separate cells. Through
such repeated cell divisions the full sized animal gradually develops
from the germ of the animal egg after fructification and the
substitution of used up cells in the full grown animal is brought
about similarly. To call such a process "composition" and to speak of
the term "evolution" as a purely imaginary term belongs to one who
does not know anything of the matter, hard as it is to imagine such
ignorance at this date.
We have still somewhat to say with respect to Herr Duehring's views of
life in general. Elsewhere he sets forth the following statement with
respect to life. "Even the inorganic world is a self-regulated system
but one may undertake to speak of life in the proper sense first when
the organs and the circulation of matter through special separate
channels from a central point to another germ collection of a minor
formation begin."
If life begins where the separate organs begin then we must hold all
Haeckel's protozoa (Protistenreich) and probably many others as dead;
all organisms at least up to those composed of one cell and those
included are not capable of life. If the means of circulation of
matter through different channels is the distinguishing mark of life
we must place outside of this definition all the upper classes of the
colenterata entirely, with the exception of the medusae, and therefore
all the polypi and other plant animals are also to be considered as
being outside the class of living creatures. And if the circulation of
matter through different canals from an inner point is the
distinguishing characteristic of life we must reckon all animals as
dead which either have no heart or several hearts. Besides these there
belong also to this category all worms, starfish and ringed creatures
(annuloids and annulous according to Huxley's definition) a portion of
the shell fish, crabs, and finally a vertebrate animal, the lancelet
(amphioxus) and all plants.
When Herr Duehring therefore undertakes to distinguish life narrowly
and strictly, he gives four mutually contradictory modes of
distinguishing life, one of which condemns not only the whole of plant
life but about half the animal kingdom to eternal death. No one can
accuse him of having deceived us when he promised us peculiar results
based on individual ideas.
In another place he says "There is a simple fundamental type in nature
belonging to all organisms from the lowest to the highest" and this
type is to be met "in the subordinate movements of the most
undeveloped plants." This is again an absolutely false statement. The
simplest type in the whole of organic nature is the cell, and it lies
universally at the foundation of the highest organisms. On the other
hand there is a substance among the lowest organisms lower even than
the cell, the protomoeba, a single piece of undifferentiated
protoplasm, without any differentiation, a complete series of monads
and the entire class of siphoneae. All of these are connected with the
higher organisms only by virtue of the fact that protoplasm is its
substantial foundation, and that they fulfill the functions of
protoplasm, that is they live and die.
Further Herr Duehring tells us "physiologically the concept of
existence consists in this, that it embraces a single nerve apparatus.
Sensation is therefore the characteristic of all animal organisms that
is the capacity of conscious subjective recognition of circumstances.
The sharp line of differentiation between plants and animals consists
in the leap to sensation. This distinguishing line cannot any more be
abolished by known forms of transition than it can be brought into
existence by the logical necessity of externally distinguishable
characteristics." And further "Plants are totally and eternally
without sensation and are devoid of the faculty for it."
In the first place Hegel says that "sensation is the specific
differentiation, the distinguishing mark of the animal." Thus one of
Hegel's erudite statements becomes an indubitable truth of the last
instance merely by being copied into Herr Duehring's book.
In the second place we now arrive for the first time at the forms of
transition between animals and plants. That these intermediate forms
exist, that there are organisms concerning which we are unable to say
flatly whether they are plants or animals, that we are therefore
unable to fix accurately the frontiers between plant and animal life,
all these things make Herr Duehring logically anxious to fix a
decisively distinguishing line, which in the next breath he declares
cannot be thoroughly relied on. But there is no need for us to go to
the doubtful region; intermediate between plants and animals are
sensitive plants which at the least contact fold their leaves or close
their petals. Are insect eating plants utterly without sensation? Even
Herr Duehring cannot make such an assertion without indulging in
"unscientific half-poetry."
In the third place Herr Duehring is again giving free rein to his
imagination when he says that sensation is psychologically existent,
even when the nerve apparatus is exceedingly simple. This is found
regularly among reptiles yet Herr Duehring is the first to say that
they have no sensation because they have no nerves. Sensation is not
necessarily bound up with nerves but it is bound up with some
albuminous substance the true nature of which has not yet been
discovered.
In addition, the biological knowledge of Herr Duehring becomes
exceedingly evident in that he is not ashamed to fling at Darwin the
question do animals develop from plants? so that it is a question
whether he is more ignorant with regard to plants or animals.
Of life in general Herr Duehring can only tell us "The change in the
form of matter which fulfills itself by plastic constructive
arrangement remains a distinguishing characteristic of the individual
life-process."
That is all that we learn of life and with respect to the plastic
creative arrangement we sink knee deep in the nonsense of Duehring's
jargon. If we want to learn what life is we shall have to look at the
problem a little more closely on our own account.
That organic change in matter is the most universal and distinctive
evidence of life has been declared by physiological chemists and
chemical physiologists times without number during the last thirty
years and their utterances are translated by Herr Duehring into his
own clear and elegant language. But to define life as an organic
change of matter is simply to define life as life, for organic change
of matter, or change of matter with plastic creative arrangement is a
statement which must itself be explained by life, and the explanation
in its turn by the difference between organic and inorganic, that is
between that which is alive and that which is not alive. So that with
this explanation we do not get at the problem.
Organic change, as such, is frequently found where life does not
exist. There are whole series of processes in chemistry, which by the
proper combination of the elements, produce again their own
conditions, so that thereby a certain body is the creator of a
process. Thus in the manufacture of sulphuric acid by the burning of
sulphur, there is created in this process sulphuric dioxide SO_{2},
and if one add steam and nitric acid thereto, the sulphuric dioxide
takes up the water and the oxygen and becomes H_{2} SO_{4}. Nitric
acid gives off oxygen and becomes nitric oxide, this nitric oxide
simultaneously takes up new oxygen from the atmosphere and is
transformed into a higher oxide of nitrogen and from this acid
sulphuric dioxide is again given off and made by the same process, so
that, theoretically, an infinitely small amount of nitric acid should
be effective to transform an unlimited quantity of sulphuric dioxide,
oxygen and water into sulphuric acid. Change in matter regularly
occurs through the passing of fluids through dead organic and
inorganic membranes as in the artificial cells of Traube. It therefore
appears that there is no progress by the way of organic change for the
quality of organic change which was to explain life must itself be
explained by life. We must therefore seek it elsewhere.
Life is a mode of existence of protoplasm and consists essentially in
the constant renewal of the chemical constituents of this substance.
Protoplasm is here understood in the modern chemical sense and
comprises under this name all substances analogous to the white of an
egg, otherwise called protein substances. The name is not
satisfactory, for the ordinary white of egg plays the least active
role of all transformed substances, since it only serves as mere
nourishment for the yolk, for the self-developing germ. As long
however as so little is known of the chemical constituents of
protoplasm the name is better than any other because more inclusive.
Whenever we discover life we also find it bound up with protoplasm,
and when we find a piece of protoplasm not in solution there we find
also life, without exception. Doubtless the presence of other chemical
constituents is necessary to a living body, to produce the various
differentiations of these elements of life. They are not necessary to
life in itself, hence they enter as food and become transformed into
protoplasm. The lowest forms of life with which we are acquainted are
nothing but simple pieces of protoplasm and yet they have all the
appearance of living objects.
But in what consist these signs of life which are common to all living
objects? In this, that the protoplasm takes from its surroundings
other matter suitable to itself and assimilates it while other former
portions of the body become decomposed and are thrown off. Other
things, not living bodies, decompose or make combinations, but cease
thereby to be what they were. The rock worn by atmospheric action is
no longer rock, the metal which becomes oxidised goes off in rust. But
what causes the destruction of dead bodies is the essential of the
existence of living protoplasm. From the very moment when the unbroken
interchange in the constituents of protoplasm ceases, the continual
interchange of receiving and throwing off, from that moment the
protoplasmic substance itself ceases, becomes decomposed, that is,
dies.
Life, the mode of existence of protoplasmic substance, therefore
consists in this, that at one and the same moment it is itself and
something else, and this is not the result of a process to which it is
compelled by external agency, since this may happen also with objects
which are dead. On the contrary life, which is change of matter, is
consequent upon nourishment and throwing off, is a self-fulfilling
process inherent in its medium, protoplasm, without which it cannot
exist. Hence, it follows that if chemistry should ever discover how to
make protoplasm artificially, this protoplasm must show some signs of
life, even if very insignificant. It is, of course, doubtful if
chemistry will discover the proper food for this protoplasm at the
same time as the protoplasm.
Through the changes in matter produced by nourishment and throwing
off, as actual functions of the protoplasm, and through its own
plasticity, proceed all the other most simple factors of life,
sensibility which consists in the interchange between the protoplasm
and its food, contractibility which shows itself at a very low stage
in the consumption of food, possibility of growth which is shown in
the lowest stages of development by splitting, and internal motion
without which neither the consumption nor assimilation of food is
possible.
Our definition of life is, of course, very incomplete since in order
to include all the widely differing manifestations of life it must
confine itself to the most universal and simple. Definitions are of
little scientific worth. In order to determine what life is we must
examine all forms of its manifestation from the lowest to the highest.
For ordinary use such definitions are very convenient and in a certain
sense indispensable, and they can do no harm as long as their
inevitable deficiencies are not forgotten.
(The remainder of this section simply teases Herr Duehring.)