Page:The Spirit of Russia by T G Masaryk, volume 2.pdf/97

Rh positivism of Comte. Pisarev, like so many others, is in truth an empiricist, and he himself frequently speaks of the realists as empiricists. This interchange of empiricism with sensualism and materialism is a stereotyped phenomenon in the history of thought. In like manner, the idealisation of the natural sciences, of naturalism, frequently occurs, and is typical of empiricism. Enumeration, weighing, measuring, the precise record of facts, these constitute for Pisarev the only right method, laboratory methods being applied to life by the nihilistic Bazarovs.

Facts, this is the realistic and nihilistic slogan, used to wearisome iteration, palpable facts being recognised naturalistically and materialistically, whilst impalpable facts are simply ignored. The nihilist is extremely hostile toward everything which he terms abstract or general; he demands the concrete, concreteness is his war-cry. "There is no such thing as an abstract truth; truth is concrete Every thing depends upon the conditions of time and space" (Černyševskii). "Let us have the real man of flesh and blood with his doings, not fantastic relationships to the entire outer world" (Dobroljubov). We must have facts, therefore, isolated facts, no philosophy, no metaphysics, no general outlook on the universe, no theory, no illusions, no verbiage.

Pisarev positively condemns a general outlook, writing: "There can be nothing more disastrous for the student of nature than to have a general outlook on the universe."

The nihilist distorts positivism further, inasmuch as, in contrast with Comte or Mill, he subordinates theory to practice, life being in this sense opposed to science. Looking at the matter more closely, we find that science in this connection means official academic science. Thus Pisarev tilts against "modern scholasticism."

The genealogical tree of nihilism is not difficult to draw up. Comte and Mill; Taine and Littré; Büchner, Moleschott, and Vogt. The three last-named, in especial, exercised great influence over the majority of nihilists. Moleschott proclaimed the nature student as the Prometheus of the modern age. He expounded The Circulation of Life, explained that chemistry was the supreme science, and actually expected from it the solution of the social question. The Russian students, hungering for knowledge, and the budding reformers, were fascinated by these materialistic pronunciamentos and watch-