Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/805

Rh our intelligence. He argues, with Lotze, that in seeking to frame a theory of physical evolution we must always assume, over and above the eternal atoms, a special initial arrangement of these, without which the order of events would be inconceivable. This modest kind of teleology (he says) is not only not opposed to Mr Darwin s doctrine; it is its necessary pre-supposition. &quot; The formal purpose- fulness of the world is nothing else than its adaptation to our understanding.&quot; Lange seems further disposed to accept Kant s theory of organism as manifesting objective purpose, though he will not allow that this explains anything, all explanations being by way of the principle of mechanical causation. Noire. In Ludwig Noire&quot; we have a writer who accepts all the teaching of scientific evolutionists, and at the same time seeks to give to the doctrine a metaphysical and monistic interpretation. In his two volumes Die Welt als Entwickelung des Geistes and Der Monistische Gedanke, Noire&quot; assumes the existence of elementary atoms or &quot; monads &quot; endowed with the twofold properties of motion and sensation. Time and space are not simply forms of intuition, but forms of appearance (Erscheinungsformeii) of these fundamental properties. The process of evolution from the simple to the complex, has its ground in the latter property, sensation, which gives its direction to motion (which latter is unchangeable in amount), and which involves a tendency or impulse to further differenti ation. The purposefulness of the process of evolution is due to its being the work of a mental principle (sensation). The formation of inorganic bodies is the preliminary step in the process, and involves an obscure mode of conscious ness. The genesis of consciousness is said to be effected by means of a certain mode of collision among the atoms, though this point is not made very clear. Noire&quot; s doctrine of evolution appears to waver somewhat between a mechan ical theory (atoms endowed with sensibility, but acting according to strictly mechanical laws) and a distinctly spiritualistic and teleological doctrine, such as that of Schelling and Hartmann. Hartmann.- The writings of E. von Hartmann have a special interest, as illustrating how Mr Darwin s doctrine of organic development is regarded from the point of view of a thorough-going metaphysical teleology. To Hartmann the world is a manifestation in time which is real as applying to the activities of this principle of an ontological prin ciple, styled the unconscious, which is at once will and intelligence. The process of evolution, from the simplest material operations up to conscious human actions, depends on the progressive domination of will, which is the blind force, and answers to the mechanical aspect of the world, by intelligence, which gives to this force form and direction, and answers to the logical and teleological aspect of the world. The end of the process for which this unconscious makes is not, as Hegel says, self-consciousness, but non- existence, to which consciousness is the immediate pre condition. Hartmann has devoted a separate volume to Mr Darwin s theory (Wahrheit und Irrthum im Darwin- ismus), in which he shows himself disposed to accept the principle of natural selection as the mechanical means which the unconscious makes use of in order to effect a certiin amount of the upward organic progress towards which it strives. Influence of Darwinism in Germany. We will close the sketch of the recent German discussion of evolution-pro blems, and so our historical review as a whole, by a brief reference to the philosophic and quasi-philosophic literature which has sprung up in Germany under the direct influence of Mr Darwin s doctrine. It is not a little curious that, of the two great English evolutionists, the one who has most stimulated German philosophical thought is the writer who has confined himself to questions of natural science, while the writer who has built up the idea of organic descent into u complete cosmological theory is only now beginning to be known in that country. (a) Darwinism and Methodology. First of all, then, a bare allusion must be made to certain criticisms of Mr Darwin s biological hypothesis as legitimate instruments of a sound natural philosophy. It may surprise some English readers to learn that the doctrine of the descent of species by natural selection has been denounced in Germany as partaking of the vices of a spurious and teleo logical natural philosophy. The writer who has taken most pains to show up the philosophic unsoundness of Mr Darwin s procedure is A. Wigand (Der Darunnismus nnd die Naturforschung Newton s und Cttvier s, see especially vol. ii.) (b) Darwinism and Cosmology. Turning now to the influences of Darwinism 1 on German thought, we may best begin with the more circumscribed branches of speculation. Physical speculation in Germany is being slowly affected by Mr Darwin s theory. A curious example of this is to be met with in a little work by Dr Karl du Prel, entitled Der Kampf urns Dasein am Ilimmel. This work is of real philo sophic interest as illustrating how Mr Darwin s way of con ceiving self-preservation, as the effect of natural superiority in respect of adaptability to the conditions of existence, may be extended beyond the organic world to the cosmos as a whole. Du Prel regards the cosmic bodies as analogous to competing organisms, space standing for the means of exist ence for which they struggle, and the force of attraction and the fitness of the body s movement in relation to those of other bodies representing organic efficiency. Those bodies which have these advantages survive, whereas those which lack them are extinguished either by being dissipated or fused with other bodies. (c) Danvinism and Anthropology. Passing by the bio- logical speculations respecting the ultimate origin of living forms to which Darwinism has given rise, we pass to those aspects of anthropology which have a peculiar philosophic interest. In a sense it may be said that Mr Darwin s speculations, especially as carried out by himself in his Descent of Man, have powerfully influenced the whole of recent anthropological speculation ; for writers like A. Bastian (Schopfung und Entstehung and Der Mensch in der Geschicfite), who still hold to the doctrine of the fixity of species, and the essential difference between human history and sequences of natural events, are now the exceptions. With anthropology, we must connect that new science of comparative human psychology (Volkerptychologie) which has sprung up of late years. Origin of Language. Of the problems which fall undur this science of man s genesis and development, none har&amp;gt; more of philosophic interest than the question of the origin of language. This question, which lies at the very thres hold of a proper understanding of the relation of man s mental nature to that of the lower animals, is touched on by Mr Darwin himself in his Descent of Man. In Germany it is being earnestly discussed by a number of writers, on whom the influence of Mr Darwin s theory of human descent is very marked. Among the writers who have explicitly applied the method of evolution, as defined by Mr Darwin, to the explanation of language, may be men tioned A. Schleicher, 1 L. Geiger, 2 Dr G. Ja ger, 3 Wilhelm Bleek, 4 and Ernest Haeckel. 5 Ja ger, who assumes that man is the immediate descendant of ape-like progenitors, 1 Die Darwin scke Theorie und die Sprachu-issenschaft. 3 Ueber den Ursprung der menschliclien Sprache. 4 Ucber den Ursprung der Sprache. 5 The History of Creation, ii. p. 300 sq. VTTT n-r
 * Der Ur sprung der Spracht.