The Catholic World, Vol. 20, October 1874‐March 1875Various
Religion
The Catholic World, Vol. 20, October 1874‐March 1875
Various
Catholic Church -- Periodicals
_Büchner._ Yet “the mental capacity of man is enlarged in proportion to
the material growth of his brain, and is diminished according to the
diminution of its substance in old age” (p. 110). “It is a fact known to
everybody, that the intelligence diminishes with increasing age, and that
old people become childish.... The soul of the child becomes developed in
the same degree as the material organization of its brain becomes more
perfect” (p. 111). “Pathology furnishes us with an abundance of striking
facts, and teaches us that no part of the brain exercising the function of
thought can be materially injured without producing a corresponding mental
disturbance” (p. 119). “The law that brain and soul are necessarily
connected, and that the material expansion, shape, and quality of the
former stands in exact proportion to the intensity of the mental
functions, is strict and irrefutable, and the mind, again, exercises an
essential influence on the growth and development of its organ, so that it
increases in size and power just in the same manner as any muscle is
strengthened by exercise” (p. 122). “The whole science of man is a
continuous proof in favor of the connection of brain and mind; and all the
verbiage of philosophical psychologists in regard to the separate
existence of the soul, and its independence of its material organ, is
without the least value in opposition to the power of facts. We can find
no exaggeration in what Friedreich, a well‐known writer on psychology,
says on this point: ‘The exhibition of power cannot be imagined without a
material substratum. The vital power of man can only manifest its activity
by means of its material organs. In proportion as the organs are manifold,
so will be the phenomena of vital power, and they will vary according to
the varied construction of the material substratum. Hence, mental function
is a peculiar manifestation of vital power, determined by the peculiar
construction of cerebral matter. The same power which digests by means of
the stomach, thinks by means of the brain’ ” (pp. 124, 125).
_Reader._ Your manner of reasoning, doctor, is not calculated to bring
conviction, as every one of your arguments contains a fallacy. Your first
argument is: The brain is the measure of the thinking power; and therefore
the thinking power, or the soul, is a result of organic development. The
second is: Brain and mind are necessarily connected; and therefore the
soul cannot have a separate existence. The third is: The vital power of
man can only manifest its activity by means of its material organs; and
therefore the soul needs to be supported by a material substratum. Such
substantially is the drift of your argumentation. Now, I maintain that the
three arguments are merely three sophisms.
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