Page:Philosophical Review Volume 12.djvu/580

564 points of view of the 'producer' and the 'spectator.'" This point of view is called Æsthonomic Idealism.

Ostwald maintains that "there is really an idea which bridges over not only the chasm between force and substance, but also that between mind and matter, and which is of a nature sufficiently manifold to embrace the totality of one experience, the interior as well as the exterior. This idea we term energy." It is possible to subordinate to the idea of energy the totality of psychical phenomena. In all that we know of intellectual processes, there is nothing to hinder us from regarding them as a particular form of energetic activity. Nor does this view contradict the law of the conservation of energy. For since this law holds only for the sum total of all kinds of energy, there is no contradiction in the thought of one form disappearing in order to be converted into other forms. Moreover, there seems to be nothing in the peculiar properties of psychical phenomena which would forbid their being brought under the idea of energy. What appears to be the greatest difficulty is to comprehend the facts of self-consciousness, the ego or the personality, as a phenomenon of energetics. Yet this difficulty is lessened by the fact that not all psychical processes are carried on within self-consciousness. Since, then, consciousness is not a general property of psychical processes, the difficulty of explaining the ego does not involve the question of the general conception of psychical phenomena, but belongs within the special domain of psychology.

Though the nineteenth century achieved more than any previous century in science, in industry, and in education, yet it showed a greater tendency toward pessimism than any previous century. This decline in happiness is due to several reasons. First, according to modern scientific views, man occupies a much less important place in the universe than he was given by the anthropocentric religious views of the past. The prevailing tendency now is to regard him merely as the most highly evolved member of a natural series. Second, men's relations with society are more complex and more confusing than ever before. Third, competition between individuals is sharper than ever before. Fourth, though externally, contact between men is closer than ever before, yet internally, men were never more divided; witness the universal labor troubles of the present time. Fifth, old ideals are shattered by modern criticism, and there is a general uncertainty in regard to the reliability of moral standards. Though this pessimism rests on undoubted facts, and is too deeply rooted to be merely reasoned away, yet it represents a one-sided construction of life, and