Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 5.djvu/486

 ENERGY

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ENERGY

by his special doctrine of energy. Matter, the sup- posed vehicle or support of energj-, he rejects as a use- less hypothesis. Every object in the universe is merely some manifestation of energy of which the total amount retains a constant value. Energy itself is work, or what arises out of work, or is converted back into work. It is the universal substance of the process of change in the world, llass is merely capac- ity for energj' of movement, density is volume- energy. All we can know of the universe may be expressed in terms of energj'. To accomphsh this is the business of the savant. Hj-potheses are to be abandoned as worthless crutches; and the aim of science is to catalogue oljjects as forms of energy. But surely this is merely to abandon all attempt at explanation. The mere application of a generic com- mon name to diverse objects furnishes no real account of their qualitative differences. We do not advance knowledge by the easy process of assigning new prop- erties to energj', any more than the ancients did by the lilieral allotment of occult qualities. The simple truth is that the quantitative law of constancy supplies not the faintest clue to the fundamental problem, how and why the present infinitely varied allotropic forms of reality have come into existence.

The Law .\nd its Consequen'Ces. — Not only does the modern scientific doctrine of energj' fail to provide a foundation for a materialistic theorj' of a mechanical self-existing universe, but a most important part of that doctrine — the second law of thermodj-namics and its consequences — presents us with the materials for a verj' powerful argument against that theorj'. Lord Kelvin, the most eminent authority on this point, working from data established bj' Carnot and Clau- sius, has shown that "although mechanical energj' is indestructible, there is a universal tendency to its dis- sipation, which produces throughout the sj'stem a gradual augmentation and diffusion of heat, cessation of motion and exhaustion of the potential energj' of tlie material Universe" (Lectures, vol. 11, p. 356). The heat becoming thus diffused at an equallj' low temperature throughout the entire universe, all hving organisms will perish of cold. In fact, the conclusion which Kelvin deduces from the modern scientific doc- trine of energj' is that the physical world, so far from being a self-existing machine endowed with perpetual motion, much more closelj' resembles a clock which has been put together and wound up at some definite date in the past and will run down to a point at which it will stop dead in the future.

C0NSERV.\TI0N OF ENERGY AXD THE HuM.Uv' SoUL.

— .According to the ordinarj' Catholic doctrine, philo- sophical and theological, the soul is a spiritual princi- ple, distinct from matter, j'et, by its union with the organism constituting one substantial being, the living man. It is the source of spiritual activities, thought, and volition. It is endowed with free-will. It ori- ginates and controls bodilj' movements. In its origin it has been created; at death it is separated from the body and passes away from the material universe. Now if the soul or mind, though itself not a form of material energj', acts on the bodj', originates, checks, or modifies bodilj' mo^■ements, then it seems to per- form work and so to interfere with the constancy of the sum of energj'. Moreover, if thus being sources of energj' indiviilual souls are created and introduced into this material universe and subsequentlj' pass out of it, then their irruptions seem to constitute a contin- uous infringement of the law. For clearness we will handle the subject under .separate heads.

I. Does the soul or mind initiate or modifj' in any way movements of matter, or changes in the forms of energies of the material world? Yes, assuredlv; the soul through its activities, does thus act on matter — Clifford, Huxley, Hodgson notwithstanding. The thoughts, feelings, and volitions of men have had some influence on the physical events which have consti-

tuted human history. All the movements of every material particle in the world would not have been precisely the same if there had been no sensation or thought. Art, literature, science, invention have had their origin in ideas, and thej' involve movements of material bodies. The mental states called feelings and desires have reallj' influenced war and trade. If these feelings and ideas had been different, war, trade, art, Uterature, and invention would have been differ- ent. The movements of some portions of matter would have been other than thej' have been. The mind or soul, therefore, does reallj' act on the body.

II. Is the soul, or the activities by which it acts on the bodj', for instance its conscious states, merelj' a particular form of energj' interconvertible with the other material forms of heat, motion, electricitj', and the rest? Or is the soul and psj-chic activitj' some- thing distinct in kind, not interchangeable with any form of material energj'? Yes. That menial or psy- chical states and activities are realities, utterlj- dis- tinct in kind from material energj', is the judgment of philosophers and scientists alike. These states are subjective phenomena perceptible onlj' bj' the internal consciousness of the inilividiial to whom thej' belong. Their existence depends on their being perceived. In fact, their esse is percipi. Thej' are not transmutable mto so much material energj'. As Tj'ndall saj-s, " the chasm between the two orders of realitj' is intellec- tuallj' impassable". The phenomena of conscious- ness are not a fi.xed siun ; though incapable of proper quantitative measurement thej' seem to grow exten- sivelj' and intensivelj'and to rise inqualit j' in the world. Wundt, indeed, embodies this fact in his contrasted " principle of the increase of psj-chical energj' ' ', a law of qualitative value, which he attaches as the reverse or subjective side of the quant itative constancj' of phj'sical energj'. The psj'chical increase, being indefinite, holds onlj' under the condition that the psj'chical processes are continuous. Mental states or activities are thus proved on the one hand to exert a real influence on the movements of matter, whilst on the other hand thej' are different in nature from all material energies and unconvertible with anj' of the latter. The soul, mind, or whatever we call the subject or source of these im- material states or activities, must be therefore some kind of hj-perphj'sical agent or power.

III. This brings us to the central crux of the sub- ject. If the soul, or mind, or anj' of its activities, causes or modifies the movement of anj- particle of matter, then it seems to have produced an effect equiv- alent to that of a material agent, to have performed "work", and therebj' to have augmented or dimin- ished the previouslj' existing quantit j' of energj' in the area within which the disturbance took place. The vital question then arises: Can this real influence of the soul, or of its activities, on matter be squared with the law of conseri-ation? At all events, if it cannot, then so much the worse for the law. The law is a gen- eralization from experience. If its present formula- tion conflicts with anj' established fact, we maj' not denj' the fact ; we must instead reformulate the law in more qualified terms. If our experience of radium seems to contradict the law of conser\'ation, we are not at libertj' to denj- the existence of radium, or the fact that it emits heat. We must either give up the universality of the law, or devise some hj-pothesis bj' which the law and the new fact maj' be reconciled. Now we are certain that volition and thought do modifj' the working of some material agents. Conse- quent Iv, we must devise some hj'pothesis by which this fact maj' be reconciled with the law, or else alter the expression of the law.

Diverse solutions, however, have been advanced. (1) Some writers simplj' denj' the application of the law to living beings, or at least its rigid accuracj', if referred to the entire collection of vital and psj'- chical phenomena. They urge with much force that