SUMMARY.
Whether we consider Biology as a process of equilibration of physical
factors in a state of moving equilibrium, (including in this formula the
process of reproduction and heredity to which biologically speaking the
life of a species is limited--which equilibration explanation includes
an equilibration of forces, as well as an equilibration of motives,
respecting which our conceptions are as yet very indefinite and vague,)
or on the other hand consider that the facts of Biology require us to
include in our explanatory moving equilibrium theory an equilibration of
subjective factors with each other, and with the physical forces
concerned, it is clear in either case that the dominant law of Biology
as set forth by Mr. Spencer is that of Equilibration.
The place to be assigned to Purpose in a process of equilibration is not
very clear. In the first place, if the biological explanations are all
strictly limited to the chemical and physical factors, it seems evident
that there can be no purposive actions, since all actions are determined
by the chemical and mechanical relations of molecules, masses of
molecules, and organised masses of molecules. To say that what we call
purposive actions are explicable by physical and mechanical laws is to
abolish purpose and substitute physical causation. Can purpose by any
means be made lineable in such a sequence? The problem is a fair one to
consider and to attempt. We fail to do it, and we think that all who
have attempted it have failed.
But if a subjective factor is admitted into the problem, then it is
necessary to understand in what way it becomes part of, and in what way
it affects, a process of equilibration on the part of a moving
equilibrium in which it is a factor. The peculiar nature of a biological
moving equilibrium, and the respect in which it differs from a physical
or mechanical moving equilibrium, consists in the fact that it works
towards, if indeed it does not purposely aim at self-continuance by
assimilation of force and self-continuance by means of self-protection
from adverse forces in the environment. The coincidence of the
subjective element with this tendency, in many equilibria, is suggestive
of an efficient connexion. Yet if we do not understand the law of the
relation of a subjective factor with the physical and mechanical
factors, how can we understand the resultant process of equilibration
and the necessity for the biological law of adaptations for
self-preservation and self-protection? How can we understand Purpose as
an equilibration?
Ethics to be affiliated upon the cosmical process requires that we
should understand how purposive actions can be so affiliated, for Ethics
relates to purposive actions. In the failure of such a logical
connexion, we may understand Ethics on partial and limited grounds, but
we do not understand it as Mr. Spencer proposes we should understand it,
namely, as part of the cosmical process.
According to Mr. Spencer, we are bound to accept Ethics as part of the
process of cosmical equilibration for this is after all the main
conception of Mr. Spencer's great work. The apparent and ostensible
conception, and that with which he has most succeeded in impressing the
public mind, is the principle of evolution or gradual development; but
we must not lose sight of the fact that what he proposed to accomplish
was an explanation of evolution, and not merely the establishment of its
historical verity. This explanation is in terms of equilibration. That
conception lies behind and above the celebrated "Formula of Evolution,"
and by means of it the fanciful law of the moving equilibrium is posited
as the ruling principle of biological change and development, as well as
of physical changes proper. The biological law, or law of the moving
equilibrium, rules supreme over all actions and developments of
organisms: and even if an additional factor of subjectivity is present
as one of the forces which equilibrate in a moving equilibrium, it is,
nevertheless, subject to the laws of equilibration. It is not yet made
clear how the law of equilibration, which necessitates that all forces
should come to a state of rest in as speedy a time as possible, can be
changed into a biological law working in the antagonistic direction of
the self-preservation of a set of motions, and their self-protection
against a possible cessation or extinction, with the addition of means
of reproduction in view of an eventual cessation or extinction. But it
is these biological actions, some of them purposive, and some of them
perhaps not consciously purposive, which have to be properly shown as
part of the cosmical process of equilibration, before purposive actions,
and therefore, before Ethics can be explained upon cosmical principles.
ERRATA.
Page xiii, lines 1 and 13, for "actors" read "factors."
Page ii, line 18, for "he bridges over" read "he is supposed to bridge
over."
Page 38, line 27, at the end, delete "in the."
Page 43, heading, for "The Philosophical View" read "The Biological
View."
Page 47, line 27, for "Ethics" read "of Ethics."
Page 51, line 7, for "ætheticism" read "æstheticism."
Page 74, line 14, for "eges" read "egos."
Page 88, line 28, for "pervented" read "prevented."
End of Project Gutenberg's On Mr. Spencer's Data of Ethics, by Malcolm Guthrie