An Interpretation of Rudolf Eucken's PhilosophyJones, W. Tudor (William Tudor)
Religion
An Interpretation of Rudolf Eucken's Philosophy
Jones, W. Tudor (William Tudor)
Eucken, Rudolf, 1846-1926
its physical manifestations have to enter as all-important factors into
their reconstructions. Miracle is now relegated to a secondary place in
theology, and it has disappeared altogether from science; a Supreme
Being transcendent of, and immanent in, the world is not known to
science, however far it reaches into the secrets of Nature. Doubtless
the loss to religion has been here incalculable; for although the
natural scientist was able to destroy the old building, [p.61] he was
unable to construct a new one. And Eucken shows that the natural
scientist will remain unable to accomplish this, because the material
with which he deals is physical in its nature and constitutes no more
than a part--a secondary part--of what is found in the world.
The old mode of conceiving the universe, when driven from its citadel by
the new conceptions of physics and astronomy, turned for refuge to the
mystery of Life itself. Here it supposed itself to be safe. But the
development of modern chemistry and biology shows how dangerous it is to
base a theological and religious superstructure on the unfilled clefts
of natural science. The lesson here during the past hundred years ought
to be a grave warning against its repetition in the future. These clefts
have been filled more and more by the investigations and results of
modern chemistry and biology, so that the theologian is constantly kept
in a state of panic, and has to shift his camp and run away when the
tide of knowledge sweeps in with its newly discovered results. The whole
situation seems serious, but it is not so disastrous as it appears at
first sight. Doubtless the gains of science have been numerous, and have
shaken and practically ruined the old theological and metaphysical
foundations; but a halt has now been called on science itself, and its
limitations have become perceptible even to its own [p.62] leaders. It
is not quite so certain that the problem of organic life can be settled
in terms of chemical combinations and mechanism. Many scientists[14] are
agreed on this point, although they repudiate the claims of neo-vitalists
such as Driesch and Reinke.[15] No judgment can be pronounced on this
subject at the present day, and probably the problem will take a long
time before any important results will accrue. And even these results
will not solve the problem of organic life, for the manifestations of
life, the higher we mount the scale of being, are not things visible to
the senses but express themselves in the forms of meanings and
will-relations.
The limits of natural science become clearly perceptible when we enter
into the complex problem of the relation of subject and object, [p.63]
or of mind and body. The final tribunal in regard to the great questions
of life and religion is not natural science. This is not a matter of a
mere wish that it should be so on the part of religious teachers who
ignore the findings of science, but is a conviction of the scientists
themselves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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