Dr. H. Potonié, the editor of the _Naturwissenschaftliche Wochenschrift_,
Berlin, advances in one of its recent numbers (Vol. vi. 15) the following
proposition concerning the origin of the forms of thought: “All the
forms of thought have originated in the struggle for life not otherwise
than the forms of organisms.” This is further explained in the following
sentence: “Those conceptions which are called _a priori_, are inherited;
they have been necessarily used by the primitive thinking organisms and
are now in their disposition immediately present. Yet they have been
gained by experience. Without any knowledge, for instance, of space and
time, no action is possible; accordingly their conception is perhaps the
oldest and therefore it appears aprioristic.”