HISTORY OF MATERIALISM

AND

CRITICISM OF ITS PRESENT

IMPORTANCE.

BY

FREDERICK ALBERT LANGE,

LATE PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITIES OF ZÜRICH AND MARBURG.

Authorized Translation

BY

ERNEST CHESTER THOMAS,

LATE SCHOLAR OF TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. III.

V

LONDON:

TRÜBNER & CO., LUDGATE HILL.

1881.

[All rights reserved.]

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Second Book-(continued).

HISTORY OF MATERIALISM SINCE KANT.

SECOND SECTION CONTINUED.-THE NATURAL Sciences.

CHAPTER III.

Pp. 3-25

THE SCIENTIFIC COSMOGONY,

Modern Cosmogony connects itself with Newton; the condensation-

theory, 3-5. The geological stability-theory, 5-6. Long periods of

time, 6. Conclusions as to the necessary destruction of the solar

system, and of all life in the universe, 7-13. The origin of

organisms, 13 ff. The hypothesis of spontaneous generation,

14-21. The transmission-theory according to Thomson and Helm-

holtz; Zöllner's opposition, 21-24. Fechner's views, 24-25.

Interest in Darwinism has greatly increased; the questions have been

specialized, but the main features have remained unaltered, 26-27.

The superstition of species, 27. Necessity of experiment, 28.

Teleology, 32-36. Individual, 36-41. The network of classifi-

cation of the animal world is inapplicable to the lower forms, 42.

Stability of organic forms as necessary consequence of the struggle

for existence; the equilibrium of forms, 43-47. Mimicry, 48-51.

Correlation of growth; morphological kinds; the law of develop-

ment, 51-59. Differences between apparently like primitive forms,

59-62. Monophyletic and Polyphyletic descent, 62-66. False and

true Teleology, 66-70. Von Hartmann's Teleology as a model of

false Teleology based upon a gross misunderstanding of the calculus

of probabilities, 71-79. The value of the 'Philosophy of the Un-

conscious' does not depend upon this, 79-80.

THIRD SECTION. THE NATURAL SCIENCES CONTINUED.

MAN AND THE SOUL.

CHAPTER I.

THE RELATION OF MAN TO THE ANIMAL WORLD,

Pp. 83-110

Growing interest in Anthropological as compared with Cosmical ques-

tions; progress of the Anthropological Sciences, 83-85. The appli-

cation of the theory of descent to man obvious, 85. Cuvier's dicta,

87-88. Discovery of diluvial human remains; their age, 89-93.

Traces of ancient civilizations, 94-101. Influence of the sense of

beauty, 101. The upright position; origin of speech, 102. The

course of the development of civilization at first slow, then more

and more rapid, 104. The question of unity of species, 105-107.

Relation of Man to the Ape, 107-110.

The difficulties of the subject have become more obvious with the

progress of the sciences. Injurious reaction of scholastic psycho-

logy, 111-112. Phrenology, 113-125. Reflex movements as the

basis of psychical activity. Pflüger's experiments, 125-127.

Various misunderstandings and erroneous interpretations of physio-

logical experiments, 127-133. The brain does not produce any

psychological abstractum, 133. Erroneous theories of Carus and

Huschke, 134-137. Scholastic ideas must be discarded, 137-138.

Stubbornness of the prejudice as to the localizations of mental

functions, 138. Meynert's brain researches, 139-142. Psycho-

logical importance of the motor paths, 142-144. Identity of the

excitation in all nerves, 144. Experiments of Hitzig, Nothnagel,

and Ferrier; their meaning, 145-153. Wundt's remarks on the

elementary phenomena of the psychical functions, 153. Carrying

out of the laws of the conservation of energy by the cerebral

functions, 154-159. Intellectual value of the content of sensation,

159.

SCIENTIFIC PSYCHOLOGY,

CHAPTER III.

Pp. 162-201

Errors in the attempts at a Scientific and Mathematical Psychology:

Herbart and his School, 162–167. Necessity of a criticism of

Psychology, 167. Hypotheses as to the 'Nature of the Soul;' a

psychology without a Soul, 168-169. Criticism of self-observation

and of observation by means of the 'internal sense,' 169–174.

Scientific Method and Speculation, 175-178. Animal psychology,

178, 179. Ethnopsychology; ethnographical accounts of travel,

180-183. Darwin's influence, 183-184. Somatic method; applica-

tion of experiment, 184-186. Empirical psychology in England:

Mill, Spencer, Bain, 186-193. Moral statistics, 194–201.

CHAPTER IV.

THE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE SENSE-ORGANS AND THE WORLD AS

Pp. 202-230

REPRESENTATION,

The physiology of the sense-organs shows that we do not perceive exter-

nal objects but produce the appearance of such objects, 202–205.

The projection of objects outward and erect vision according to

Müller and Ueberweg, 206-209. Further exposition and criticism

of Ueberweg's theory, 209-215. Helmholtz on the nature of the

sense-perceptions, 215-216. The sense-organs as an abstraction-

apparatus, 217-218. Analogy with abstraction in thinking, 218.

Psychological explanation of phenomena does not exclude the exist-

ence of mechanical cause, 218-219. The sense-world a product of

our organization, 219. Unconscious inferences, 220-222. The

assumption of a mechanism for all psychical functions not neces-

sarily Materialism, because the mechanism itself is only representa-

tion, 223-224. Ueberweg's attempt to demonstrate the transcen-

dental reality of space, 224-225; results, 225-229. Rokitansky's

contention that the atomistic theory supports an idealistic view of

things, 229-230.

FOURTH SECTION.-ETHICAL MATERIALISM and RELIGION.

CHAPTER I.

POLITICAL ECONOMY AND DOGMATIC EGOISM,

Pp. 233-268

Origin of the theoretical assumption of a purely egoistic society,

233-235. Right and limits of abstraction; confusion of abstraction

and reality, 235-237. The accumulation of capital and the law of

the increase of wants, 237-241. Supposed utility of Egoism, 242–244.

Origin of Egoism and Sympathy, 244-246. Moral progress wrongly

denied by Buckle, 246-247. Egoism as a moral principle and the

harmony of interests, 247-253. Examination of the doctrine of the

harmony of interests, 253-259. Causes of inequality and rise of the

proletariat, 259–268.

The ideas of Christianity as remedies for social evils: their apparent

inefficacy according to Mill, 269-270. Mediate and gradual influ-

ence; connexion of Christianity and social reform, 270-273. Moral

influences of belief partly favourable, partly unfavourable, 273-276.

Importance of form in Morality and Religion, 276-280. Pretension

of Religion to truth, 280-282. Impossibility of a Religion of Reason

without Imagination, 282-287. Pastor Lang and his argument

against this view, 287-291.