Parallel Paths: A Study in Biology, Ethics, and ArtRolleston, T. W. (Thomas William)
Philosophy
Parallel Paths: A Study in Biology, Ethics, and Art
Rolleston, T. W. (Thomas William)
Art; Ethics; Science -- Philosophy
One can, no doubt, as in the case
of a Greek chorus, set great poetry to the measure of a simple chant,
or one can unite rhythmic diction of a broad and simple character with
great music, but the highest poetry and the highest music do not seem
to combine to good purpose.
In this rapid survey of the arts there are, of course, large and
attractive fields of exploration which have not been even glanced at.
It has been sought on the present occasion merely to give the clue
by which the arts may be related to the main thesis of this book.
Ethics and Art constitute the two great fields of what we may call the
disinterested activity of man. They engage his highest powers, they set
him on fire with ardour and sympathy, yet they do nothing, directly
at least, towards satisfying the primary and personal needs of his
nature. Our problem has been to relate them to life, and to give them
a place in a scheme of organic unity. Both have been seen to have that
place only by reference to something which in one sense is immanent in
nature, and clearly perceptible there, but which in another aspect is
outside “the realm of clock-time and measuring rod,” the transcendent
Whole. All spiritual ethics, all art which is not of the nature of a
mere record, must in the last resort rely on this wholeness of things
for their justification. But in the earlier parts of this study we have
tried to show that even the physical organization of nature must rely
on it too; for the driving force of evolution, as well as the framework
of law in which it works, have been both interpreted as a manifestation
of the Will to live, to act; of the impulse towards the richest and
fullest development of the material, animal, and spiritual life. It is
in this life-impulse that God reveals Himself in the world of time and
space. This is the visible aspect of His all-embracing unity; this is
His essential relation to earthly things; and this is the clue to their
rational interpretation as parts of a divine cosmic Order. To learn
to apprehend the vast Purpose with conscious intelligence, to further
it with conscious will and with deliberate faith, is the sweet and
wholesome gospel which Nature preaches to all who have ears to hear.
APPENDIX A
SUM ERGO COGITO
Not to encumber the text with too much abstruse metaphysics, I place
here what seem to me some important corollaries of the position stated
at the close of Chapter I.
If the Universe is not a mere aggregate but a coherent Whole, then
it follows of necessity that the units which compose it will have
relations not only with each other but also with the Whole. When any
of these units reaches the stage of consciousness it may be expected
that it will become conscious of these relations, and that this
consciousness will, like other things, develop in time to greater and
greater fulness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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