Scientists readily admit the advantage of philosophy in theory, but in
practice their approval is far from being unqualified. A subservient
philosophy, which accepts without hesitation all the current dogmas
of contemporary science, is one thing, and a critical philosophy
venturing to apply the canons of logic to so-called scientific proof
is quite another. Philosophy of the latter type is promptly informed
that it has no right to any opinion whatever, and that only the
scientific specialist is qualified to speak on such subjects. But the
disqualification, which is supposed to arise from lack of special
knowledge, is just as promptly forgotten, when there is question of
philosophy in the rôle of a pliant sycophant, and the works of a Wells
or a van Loon are lauded to the skies, despite the glaring examples of
scientific inaccuracy and ignorance, in which they abound.
This partiality is sometimes carried to a degree that makes it
perfectly preposterous. Thus it is by no means an infrequent thing to
find scientists dismissing, as unworthy of a hearing, a philosopher
like Hans Driesch, who spent the major portion of his life in
biological research, and combined the technical discipline of a
scientist with the mental discipline of a logician. The chemist, H.
E. Armstrong, for instance, sees in the mere label “philosopher” a
sufficient reason for barring his testimony. “Philosophers,” jeers
the chemist, with flippant irrelevance, “must go to school and study
in the purlieus of experimental science, if they desire to speak with
authority on these matters.” (Smithson. Inst. Rpt. for 1912, p. 528.)
Such is his comment on Driesch, yet Driesch did nothing at all, if he
did not do far more than Armstrong prescribes as a prerequisite for
authoritative speaking. In James Harvey Robinson, on the contrary, we
have an example of the tendency of scientists to coddle philosophers
who assume a docile, deferential, and submissive attitude towards
every generalization propounded in the name of natural science. In
sheer gratitude for his uncritical acquiescence, his incapacitation
as a nonspecialist is considerately overlooked, and he can confess,
without the slightest danger of discrediting his own utterances: “I am
not ... a biologist or palæontologist. But I have had the privilege
of consorting familiarly with some of the very best representatives
of those who have devoted their lives to the patient study of the
matters involved in this controversy. I think I quite understand
their attitude.” (_Harper’s Magazine,_ June, 1922, p. 68.) By his own
testimony he is a scientific amateur, but this does not, in the least,
prevent him from “speaking with authority” or from being lionized in
scientific circles as an evolutionary “defender of the faith.” Clearly,
it is the nature of their respective views, and not the possession or
absence of technical knowledge, which makes Robinson a favorite, and
Driesch a _persona non grata_, with “the very best representatives”
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