THE STORY OF PHILOSOPHY2 The Lives and Opinions

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THE STORY OF PHILOSOPHY
relative phenomena, the double effect of an ultimate cause whose nature
must remain unknown* The recognition of this Inscrutable Power is the
core of truth in every religion, and the beginning of all philosophy.
2. EVOLUTION
Having indicated the unknowable, philosophy surrenders it, and turns
its face to what can be known. Metaphysics is a mirage: as Michelet put
it, it is "the art of befuddling one's self methodically." The proper field
and function of philosophy lies in the summation and unification of the
results of science. "Knowledge of the lowest kind is un-unified knowledge;
science is partially-unified knowledge; philosophy is completely-unified
knowledge." 32 Such complete unification requires a broad and universal
principle that will include all experience, and will describe the essential
features of all knowledge. Is there a principle of this kind?
We may perhaps approach such a principle by trying to unify the
highest generalizations of physics. These are the indestructibility of
matter, the conservation of energy, the continuity of motion, the persistence
of relations among forces (i. e., the inviolability of natural law), the
transformafaility and equivalence of forces (even of mental and physical
forces), and the rhythm of motion. This last generalization, not usually
recognized, needs only to be pointed out. All nature is rhythmical, from
the pulsations of heat to the vibrations of violin strings; from the un-
dulations of light, heat and sound to the tides of the sea; from the
periodicities of sex to the periodicities of planets and comets and stars;
from the alternation of night and day to the succession of the seasons, and
perhaps to the rhythms of climatic change; from the oscillations of molecules
to the rise and fall of nations and the birth and death of stars.
All these "laws of the knowable" are reducible (by an analysis which
must not here be followed in detail) to the final law of the persistence of
force. But there is something static and inert about this principle; it does
not so much as hint at the secret of life. What is the dynamic principle of
reality? What is the formula of the growth and decay of all things? It
must be a formula of evolution and dissolution, for "an entire history of
anything must include its appearance out of the imperceptible and its disappearance
into the imperceptible." 33
So Spencer offers us his famous formula of evolution, which made the
intellect of Europe gasp for breath, and required ten volumes and forty
years for its explanation. "Evolution is an integration of matter and a
concomitant dissipation of motion; during which the matter passes from
an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent hetero-
geneity; and during which the retained motion undergoes a parallel
transformation." 8* What does this mean?
*P. 119. P. 253. "P. 367.