International Congress of Arts and Science, Volume 1: Philosophy and Metaphysics
Philosophy
International Congress of Arts and Science, Volume 1: Philosophy and Metaphysics
Conference proceedings; Medicine -- Congresses; Science and the humanities -- Congresses; Technology -- Congresses
We have reached two conclusions that are vital here: (1) that the
metaphysical way of looking at the world involves a transformation of
the world of physical science; (2) that it is the same world that lies
open to both science and metaphysics. Out of this arises the problem of
the _correlation_ of the two views; the two interpretations of the
world. If science be right in conceiving the world under such categories
as quantity and natural causation; if science be right in seeking a
mechanical explanation of phenomena (that is, one that excludes
prevision, purpose, and aim); and if metaphysics be right in refusing to
accept this explanation as final and in insisting that the principle of
ultimate interpretation is teleological, that it falls under the
categories of prevision, purpose, and aim; then it is clear that the
problem of correlation is on our hands. In dealing with this problem, it
will be convenient to separate it into two questions: (1) that of the
fact; (2) that of its rationale. The fact of the correlation is a thing
of common experience. We have but to consider the way in which this
Congress of Science has been brought about in order to have an
exhibition of the method of correlation. Originating first in the sphere
of thought and purpose, the design has been actualized through the
operation of mechanical agencies which it has somehow contributed to
liberate. On the scale of individual experience we have the classic
instance of the arm moving through space in obedience to a hidden will.
There can be no question as to the fact and the great difficulty of
metaphysics does not arise in the task of generalizing the fact and
conceiving the world as a system of thought-purposes working out into
forms of the actual through mechanical agencies. This generalization
somehow lies at the foundation of all metaphysical faith, and, this
being the case, the real task here, aside from the profounder question
of the _rationale_, is that of exhibiting the actual points of
correlation; those points in the various stages of the sciences from
physics to ethics and religion, at which the last category or result of
science is found to hold as its immediate implication some first term of
the more ultimate construction of metaphysics. The working out of this
task is of the utmost importance, inasmuch as it makes clear to both the
man of science and the metaphysician the intrinsic necessity of the
correlation. It is a task analogous to the Kantian deduction of the
categories.
IV
QUESTIONS OF THE ULTIMATE NATURE OF REALITY
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account