Beacon Lights of History, Volume 14: The New Era: A Supplementary Volume, by Recent Writers, as Set Forth in the Preface and Table of ContentsLord, John
Philosophy
Beacon Lights of History, Volume 14: The New Era: A Supplementary Volume, by Recent Writers, as Set Forth in the Preface and Table of Contents
Lord, John
History
differentiated part will become the parent of further differences; at
the same time, dissimilar units in the aggregate tend to separate, and
those which are similar, to cluster together ("segregation"); and this
subdivision and dissipation of forces, so long as there are any forces
unbalanced by opposite forces, must end at last in rest; the penultimate
stage of this process "in which the extremest multiformity and most
complex moving equilibrium are established," being the highest
conceivable state. The various derivative laws of phenomenal changes are
thus deducible from the persistence of force. It remains to apply them
to inorganic, organic, and superorganic existences. The detailed
treatment of inorganic evolution is omitted, as we have said, from
Spencer's plan, and he proceeds to interpret "the phenomena of life,
mind, and society in terms of Matter, Motion, and Force."
IV.
The first volume of the "Principles of Biology" consists of three parts,
the first of which sets forth the data of biology, including those
general truths of physics and chemistry with which rational biology must
start. The second part is allotted to the inductions of biology, or, in
other words, to a statement of the leading generalizations which
naturalists, physiologists, and comparative anatomists have established.
The third and final part of the first volume of the "Principles of
Biology" deals with the speculation commonly known as "the development
hypothesis," and considers its _a priori_ and _a posteriori_ evidences.
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