GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

the predisposing tmuK which ife .
to agitate its tower limbs with tuch frequency aad rapkfity?
Now the scientist's answer would be that a ** of impuls*
travelling *0ong the figured motor msvous tyrtcm h producing
certain contractions and expansions of his mttscks*
The impure* travelling along the motor nervous yitcm
would in their torn be laid to be due to movementi in tie
taun, and the movenaenti in the bwin would be thought
of as responses to stimuli from Ac world outside, received
by the team in the shape of messages travelling to it from
'
the sense organs.
The details of the answer could be expanded ahpott
indefinitdy, but whatever form the answer finally given
assumed, it would need, if it were to qualify as a scientific
explanation, to satisfy two conditions. These are that
whatever is cited as die cause of the movements of the
figure must be a physical thing or event, and must precede
in time the movement which it causes* Now, the idea of
winning the race, involving, as % docs, a conception of
something which does not as yet exist, namely, victory in
this particular race, satisfies neither of these conditions;
it is not physical and it is not past It is precisely to this
idea that, a tdcologist would say, we must look for an
explanation of why it is that the man's legs move as they
do* And since the idea involves a reference to an end
which the man's activity is seeking to realize, it constitutes
an illustration of the theological mode of explanation.
This tdeological mode of explanation which, in the case
of die runner, happens to be the obvious one, Is difficult
to fit within the framework of the conceptions applicable
to physical science. Science, it lias frequently been said,
finds difficulty in making provision for the conception of
purpose. Science would also shrink from admitting that
something which does not yet exist, but is as yet only in
the future, namely, the attainment of victory, can influence
events which precede it in time.
To take one more example of what is prima foci* an
let us consider the case of
obviously tdeological activity,