Strauss as a Philosophical Thinker: A Review of His Book "The Old Faith and the New Faith", and a Confutation of Its Materialistic Views

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Smith, English, 1874 - 167 pages
 

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Page 55 - ... x's and y's with which he works his problems, for real entities — and with this further disadvantage, as compared with the mathematician, that the blunders of the latter are of no practical consequence, while the errors of systematic materialism may paralyse the energies and destroy the beauty of a life.
Page 54 - In so far as my study of what specially characterizes the Positive Philosophy has led me, I find therein little or nothing of any scientific value, and a great deal which is as thoroughly antagonistic to the very essence of science as anything in ultramontane Catholicism. In fact, M. Comte's philosophy in practice might be compendiously described as Catholicism minus Christianity.
Page 55 - ... no break in the chain. But when we endeavour to pass by a similar process from the phenomena of physics to those of thought, we meet a problem which transcends any conceivable expansion of the powers which we now possess. We may think over the subject again and again, but it eludes all intellectual presentation. We stand at length face to face with the Incomprehensible.
Page 55 - ... the passage from the current to the needle, if not demonstrable, is thinkable, and that we entertain no doubt as to the final mechanical solution of the problem. But the passage from the physics of the brain to the corresponding facts of consciousness is unthinkable. Granted that a definite thought, and a definite molecular action in the brain occur simultaneously; we do not possess the intellectual organ, nor apparently any rudiment of the organ, which would enable us to pass, by a process of...
Page 55 - But the man of science who, forgetting the limits of philosophical inquiry, slides from these formulae and symbols into what is commonly understood by materialism seems to me to place himself on a level with the mathematician, who should mistake the x's and y's with which he works his problems for real entities...
Page 56 - vital force " from our vocabulary, let us reduce, if we can, the visible phenomena of life to mechanical attractions and repulsions. Having thus exhausted physics, and reached its very rim, a mighty Mystery still looms beyond us. We have, in fact, made no step towards its solution. And thus it will ever loom, compelling the philosophies of successive ages to confess that " We are such stuff As dreams are made of, and our little life Is rounded by a sleep.
Page 55 - Thus there can be little doubt that the further science advances, the more extensively and consistently will all the phenomena of nature be represented by materialistic formulae and symbols.
Page 152 - Ever remember that thou, and every thing thou beholdest within thee and around thee, all that befalls thee and others, is no disjointed fragment, no wild chaos of atoms or casualties, but that it all springs, according to eternal laws, from the one primal source of all life, all reason, and all good ; this is the essence of religion. — Vol ii, p. 54. And in the light of Strauss's teaching this is the " essence " of nonsense. Man is a
Page 54 - I know, in the school of the posijivists, to treat as unreal whatever is undemonstrable. But the positivist believes in force, although he cannot tell what it is. And the organic world furnishes just as conclusive evidence of the existence of an influence superior to force, as the physical world exhibits of the existence of force itself. If indeed in accepting the doctrine of the identity of mind and force we could rid ourselves of mystery, we might find in such a fact some plausible argument for...
Page 54 - ... laws of matter we wander beyond our depth, we establish nothing certain, we bring ridicule upon the name of positive science, and achieve but a single undeniable result, that of unsettling in the minds of multitudes convictions which form the basis of their chief happiness. If my views are correct, there is certainly a field which it is not the province of physical science to explore ; and which, if we are wise, we shall carefully refrain from invading.

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