Modern French Philosophy: a Study of the Development Since ComteGunn, John Alexander
Philosophy
Modern French Philosophy: a Study of the Development Since Comte
Gunn, John Alexander
Philosophy, French; Philosophy, Modern
The grounds for such a postulate are to be found, he claims, even in
the processes of nature itself. The law of finality or teleology
manifests itself throughout the universe: purpose is to be seen at work
in the Cosmos. It is true that in the lower stages of existence it
seems obscure and uncertain, but an observer cannot fail to see “ends”
being achieved in the biological realm. The functions of organisms,
more particularly those of the animal world, show us a realm of ends
and means at work for achieving those ends. This development in the
direction of an end, this teleology, implies, says Renouvier, a
destiny. The whole of existence is a gradual procession of beings at
higher and higher levels of development, ends and means to each other,
and all inheriting an immense past, which is itself a means to their
existence as ends in themselves. May one not then, suggests Renouvier,
make a valid induction from the destiny thus recognised and partially
fulfilled of certain individual creatures, to a destiny common to all
these creatures indefinitely prolonged?[11]
[11] _Psychologic rationnelle_, vol. 2, pp. 220-221.
The objection is here made that Nature does not concern herself with
individuals; for her the individual is merely a means for the carrying
on and propagation of the species. Individuals come into being, live
for a time and pass away, the species lives on perpetually; only
species are in the plan of the universe, individuals are of little or
no worth. To this Renouvier replies that species live long but are not
perpetual; whole species have been wiped out by happenings on our
planet, many now are dying out. The insinuation about the worthlessness
of individuals rouses his wrath, for it strikes at the very root of his
philosophy, of which personality is the keynote. This, he says, is to
lapse into Pantheism, into doctrines of Buddhists and of Spinoza.
Pantheism and all kindred views are to be rejected. It is not in the
indefinable, All-existing, the eternal and infinite One, that we find
help with regard to the significance of ends in nature. Ends are to be
sought in the individuals or the species. But while it behoves us to
look upon the world as existing for the species and not the species for
the sake of the world, we must remember that the species exists for the
sake of the individuals in it. It is false to look upon the individuals
as existing merely for the sake of the species.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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