dewey influence of darwin on philososophy

8/3/2019 Dewey Influence of Darwin on Philososophy

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THE INFLUENCE OF DARWINISMON PHILOSOPHY 1

I

T HAT the publication of the "Origin ofSpecies" marked an epoch in the develop-ment of the natural sciences is well known to thelayman. That the combination of the very wordsorigin and species embodied an intellectual revoltand introduced a new intellectual temper is easilyoverlooked by the expert. The conceptions thathad reigned in the philosophy of nature and knowl-edge for two thousand years, the conceptions thathad become the familiar furni ture of the mind,rested on the assumption of t ~ superiority of thefixed and final; they rested upon treating changeand origin as signs of defect and unreality. Inlaying hands upon the sacred ark of absolutepermanency, in treating the forms that had beenregarded as types of fixity and perfection as

1 A lecture in a course of public lectures on "CharlesDarwin and His Influence on Science," given at ColumbiaUniversity in the winter and spring of 1909. Reprintedfrom the Popular Science Monthly for July, 1909.


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DARWINISM AND PHILOSOPHY

of the world and consecrate it .urrent

to con-not provoke it. Intellectually, religious emotions are not crE!ative but con

thE!ms,elvles 'N',ArI1Iv to

the " ofthinking thatwas of

knowledge,politics, and religion.No then, that the publication of Dar-

win's book, a ago, aThe true nature of the controversy is easily con-

from us, h01we,rer.that attended it. The vivid featuresanti-Darwinian row tended to leave the

issue was beicWE!en SCl,eD(:eside and theology on thecase--the


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AND PHILOSOPHYlong dominant itis a pr()tes:t.

Consider how men were impr1e8sedeerleam things

every appear-passive.

seeds or eggs orchange rapidly in

areThis prl()gJ'essive o r J ~ a I l i z l l t i ( l D does not cease till

is acluelred a true final tenn, apleted,

turn a plenitude of functions, notis pl"llxhlction

from which it took its own origin,same


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10 DARWINISM AND PHILOSOPHYIn

to; but all for

(b) Within natural sensiblea

man. wasauitbclri2:ed by one and the same prJlnC:lpl letmut;ual agJ'eeJIlent was eteJ"Ilally gluaran-

realization ofDUrD{1811r@ regula-

princ:ipJle is not to senses t it foilo1l7Sit must be an ideal or rational force.

a s p ~ ~ i f i cthe earlier stages

own peJrfectll()n.

a subordina1tion

nature:an ulterior purpose.events iscausal force t which as spiritual escapes pelfce'ptlontbut IS

The

is gr'1l,dUldly apJlrol:i-mated through the sensible it

throUilrh a sen:siblewo:rkinll out

own realiz8.tiont and this ulti,ma'te f\illilmeliltof nature and of man.

ment thus o p E ~ r a l t e d two directions.fulness accounted for intelligibility of nature

p{l8sibility of SCIe:nce,or cosmic cbluactE:r of purposefulness gavesanction and to the moral and rell$lli()US en

and


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12 DARWINISM AND PHILOSOPHY

case, valriaitioln, R , ~ r l l r O ' ( J r l p _the mec:halllismwhich "first cause" acts;of design is nonemore of its modua ov,erlilnai.

to

conceive

1"Life and Letters," VoL Jot P. ct. iSS.


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14 DARWINISM AND PHILOSOPHY

the cong.equences that thenbe

thJ'ough the formal essence ofaqueousness of thirst by water

final cause of aqueousness.used the case event or

as a whole, such logic somethe course

re


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16 DARWINISM AND

ergy, the indluc:ingrecovery to Wll IC lnf7be thereby one

loR'iians a:releted Herbert Spence1:"'s reicognitilim ofup theand the

ofabsolute would be despised in cOInpl"rillon with

seriious a c k n o w l e d J ~ e J n t ofsel1011S concern with the

not as I t turns to thebusiness a transcendent reInedt,lor one and guarantee for theis many moralists


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dewey influence of darwin on philososophy

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