The Trend of Scientific Thought
- Author:
KENNETH WALKER, F.R.C.S.
” The N ?fn as^e<^ to amplify the article entitled Which wa ^?r a ^osi^ve Philosophy of Life Mental u published in a previous number of ^isquisitio EALTh* The natural sequel would be a to know o” 0n ^ow to obtain one. But it is easier them, and th WaPts than to discover how to supply ?f a nhiir. re is no general guide to the obtaining We eventu living- The philosophy which is essentiaH ^ we are successful in our search, ttiore esoa a Pers?nal philosophy. “You can no E>ix0njnji36 your philosophy”, writes McNeile y?ur shad Human Situation, “than you can escape ? All r?W’ ^ a’so is a reflection of yourself, bias is dueCfSOn”1S is in a manner biased, and the ti?n of thP t^le nature, surroundings, and educa- Philosophvtninker.” it is impossible to formulate a as it is irrin wiH be generally acceptable, just which will e to have a single form of religion Unkind Ipeet spiritual needs of the whole of fcven if its essence be the same, its outward form must differ. All that.can be done is to examine the trend of modern thought and discover the direction in which we are travelling. As I am a medical man, and as medicine is based on science, I shall try to summarize briefly the more philo- sophical aspects of the science of today.
We live at an extremely interesting time, not only of history, but also of human thought, a time which has the appearance of being a period of transition. The science of the nineteenth century was dominated entirely by physics, the branch which had made the furthest progress, and was frankly materialistic. It was felt that matter was simple, obvious and tangible, something that could be relied upon, and something which supplied a criterion of reality. The world of values, the world of the emotions, of art, and of religious experience was, to the scientist, imaginary, the product of subjective sensations, and a world which had no real existence. Whilst the external and real world of matter was ruled by laws, many of which science had already discovered, the inner and subjective world of the spirit was entirely irrational. Scientists knew exactly where they stood; in all branches of science the amount of knowledge which had been attained was measured by the ability to interpret phenomena in terms of physics. Whatever conformed to the law of cause and effect was accepted as real, and whatever could not be explained in terms of mechanism was regarded as being unreal. It was believed that everything in the universe, from the movements of atoms to the actions, thoughts and hopes of mankind, was strictly determined. So confidently did the scientific world believe this that when Professor Tvndall addressed the British Association in 1874, he prophesied that one day science would be able to explain all that had happened in the world’s history in terms of the ” ultimately purely natural and inevitable march of evolution from the atoms of the primeval nebula to the proceedings of the British Association.”
Darwin had already explained the evolution of life culminating in the appearance of man along purely mechanical lines, and had stated that all the varieties of life on the earth resulted from the opera- tion of these mechanical forces. The automatic sifting action of natural selection upon accidental variations was responsible for the different species. To the question what caused these variations on which evolution depended, he returned no answer. Psychology was also influenced by the materialism and determinism which reigned in other departments of science. Many psychologists were dissatisfied with the methods of introspection, which had hitherto been employed, as a means of investigating psycho- logical phenomena, and sought other methods susceptible of better control. Their efforts resulted in the founding of the school of Behaviourist psychology. This took for its physiological basis Pavlov’s experimental work on reflexes. According to Pavlov all bodily movements can be interpreted as being responses to stimuli, the life of an animal being nothing but a chain of automatic or conditioned reflexes. The school of Behaviourism attempted to explain a man’s psychological life along the same lines. It regarded the brain as a receiving station for a vast number of impulses reaching it from various parts of the body, and believed its responses to these to be as strictly determined as are the responses of the spinal cord. Thinking, to the Behaviourist, is really nothing but silent talking, and is associated with a number of subconscious move- ments, such as, contractions of the muscles of the larynx. Thinking, therefore, like all other bodily activities, is a reaction to various stimuli. This being so, the Behaviourist dispenses with the concept of mind, and regards the whole of the psychical life as being a chain of automatic and conditioned reflexes.
The analytical school of Freud, which has also exercised a profound influence on modern thought, employs as a means of investigation, the method of introspection. Its fundamental thesis is that human behaviour and human thought, determined by the working of the subconsc^ mind. Although the Freudians did not, like Behaviourists, eliminate reason, they relegated 11 a subsidiary position. Its only function was rationalize actions which had already been mined by subconscious factors. Originating as empirical method for the treatment of certain nervf disorders, the Freudian teaching gradually develop into a system of psychology. The Freudian’s <j look was deterministic although he placed emphasis on this than did the Behaviourist. We controlled by our subconscious mind, and if . contents of the subconscious mind were fully knov all our actions, feelings and thoughts could, foretold. Professor McDougall, whose writ1 have also influenced present-day thought, substituted for a tyranny of the subconscious tyranny of the instinct. ” All the complex lectual apparatus of the most highly developed is but the instrument by which these (instinct impulses seek their satisfaction.”
It will be seen therefore that not only phv. and biology, but also the science which & particularly with the study of man, psychoid were at the beginning of this century dominated’ materialism and determinism. According to & teachings everything in the universe from the fa’ll| of an apple to the writing of Shakespeare’s Son’1’ could be accounted for by the working of mechafl1’ laws. Spirit and intelligence had been success^ eliminated from the universe. Suddenly, the Wi> elaborate structure of thought began to crurtf’ and strange to say, it was the physicists who vV responsible for this. They deliberately destro)’ the foundations on which so much had been erec’ by declaring that they had previously been mista* about the nature of matter. Instead of being s.c and real, matter was something which was infill attenuated and elusive, so elusive that it could even be visualized, but could be expressed only’ mathematical formulae. They even went so faf, to state that the electron behaved as though it ^ possessed of free will. Its behaviour could only, foretold in terms of probability. What was s worse for those who had placed so much faith oP previous findings of physics was the fact that physicists themselves were beginning to talk ‘) idealist philosophers. They were suggesting ^ matter exists only in so far as the mind apprehe it, thereby implying that mind is primary in cosmos, and matter only its projection. Profe*- Planck, the most brilliant of European psych15 was reported to have said, when interviewed J. W. N. Sullivan, ” I regard consciousness fundamental. I regard matter as derivative ‘} consciousness. We cannot get behind consci?: ness. Everything that we talk about, everytPj that we postulate as existing, requires consciousne$: The new discoveries of physics were not disturbing to the biologists as they might have ” because they had already found that the phys1’ chemical mechanistic theory of life was no 1 of* p?ctoie. There was in all organisms an inner drive ? reach an appropriate structure which the lawsot P ysico-chemistry could not possibly explain. This l?ner drive was named the ” elan vital by ergson, and a new theory of life was elaborated in Creative Evolution. The biologists, like the Fh ^s/.c^sts? were beginning to use the language o jdealist philosophers. The words uttered by the Physiologist J. S. Haldane are very similar to those used by Planck. ” The conclusion forced upon me !n the course of a life devoted to natural science the universe as it is assumed to be in Physical science is only an idealized world, while the real world is a spiritual universe in which Ptfitual values count for everything. (J- S. a! ane>. Gifford Lectures, 1927-1928.) , curious paradox has arisen now. Whilst the P ysicists, the arch-mechanists of the nineteenth cntury, have been turning into idealist philosophers, ud the biologists have followed suit, the majority ? Psychologists still remain entrenched in material- 11n?- Spiritual values have come back into the diverse, but are still denied to man. According to reud, all man’s religious aspirations are a relic r. childish fantasies, and of the desire ‘dttier-figure. Freud looked forward to s for a future civilization in which all religious superstitions?and he considered religion to be only superstition?would have disappeared, and science reign supreme. Freud’s world-wide fame as a psychotherapist has lent a fictitious importance to his words, and many people, ignorant of the history of science and philosophy, still accept them as the verdict of science.
Freud evidently did not keep in touch with the trend of modern scientific thought, for there no longer exists any incompatibility between the views of the scientist and the man of religion. That belonged to the last century.
Enough has been said to show that he who looks for a philosophy or a religion is no longer hampered by the dictates of science. When I was a boy the chief difficulties I encountered were the difficulty of reconciling what I heard in the school chapel with what I was taught in the laboratories and class- rooms. Seeing that I was in difficulties, the head- master presented me with a book which attempted, with only moderate success, to reconcile science with religion. Such a work is no longer necessary. The Scientist is now much more modest, and realizes how limited is the framework within which he works. He no -longer asserts that his is the only path to truth.
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