The Philosophy of Herbert Spencer: Being an Examination of the First Principles of His SystemNelson & Phillips, 1874 - 283 pages |
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absolute absurdity action admit affirm antecedent argument assume assumption atheistic atomic theory atoms becomes belief brain causation cause centrifugal force cerning chemical chemical affinity Christian Perfection claim cognition conceive conception consciousness contradiction correlation creation deny Divine doctrine evolution existence experience explain external fact faculties feelings finite fundamental reality germ give heat hence heterogeneity homogeneous ical ideas impossible inconceivable infinite insists intelligence know-nothing knowledge light logical Lucretius manifest matter and force mechanical ment mental metaphysical mind mode morocco nature nebular theory nerve nerve-currents nervous system nescience ness nihilism object organic pantheistic phenomena philosophy physical forces positivism possible postulate present principle produce proof protoplasm proved pseud-ideas purpose question reason relation religion result riences scientific sciousness self-existence sensation solar system soul Spencer suppose sure teleology theory thing thought thought-necessity tion true truth universe unknowable untenable hypothesis vesicles warrant
Popular passages
Page 106 - Knowledge before — a discovery that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy.
Page 122 - Hast thou not known ? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
Page 122 - Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number : he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power ; not one faileth.
Page 68 - The very conception of consciousness, in whatever mode it may be manifested, necessarily implies distinction between one object and another. To be conscious, we must be conscious of something ; and that something can only be known, as that which it is, by being distinguished from that which it is not. But distinction is necessarily limitation ; for, if one object is to be distinguished from another, it must possess some form of existence which the other has not, or it must not possess some form which...
Page 53 - And on contemplating the process of thought, we have equally seen how impossible it is to get rid of the consciousness of an actuality lying behind appearances ; and how, from this impossibility, results our indestructible belief in that actuality »." The last chapter is on "The Reconciliation between Religion and Science.
Page 19 - Through pure excess of complexity, and long before observation can have any voice in the matter, the most highly trained intellect, the most refined and disciplined imagination, retires in bewilderment from, the contemplation of the problem. We are struck dumb by an astonishment...
Page 17 - That no idea or feeling arises, save as a result of some physical force expended in producing it, is fast becoming a commonplace of science...
Page 48 - The Noumenon, everywhere named as the antithesis of the Phenomenon, is throughout necessarily thought of as an actuality. It is rigorously impossible to conceive that our knowledge is a knowledge of Appearances only, without at the same time conceiving a Reality of which they are appearances ; for appearance without reality is unthinkable.
Page 118 - It is possible to imagine in some dim kind of way a series of states of consciousness serving as antecedent to any one of the movements I see going on ; for my own states of consciousness are often indirectly the antecedents to such movements. But how if I attempt to think of such a series as antecedent to all actions throughout the universe, to the motions of the multitudinous stars through space, to the revolutions of all their planets round them, to the gyrations of all these planets on their...
Page 120 - And over it softly her warm ear lays: Whether we look, or whether we listen, We hear life murmur, or see it glisten; Every clod feels a stir of might, An instinct within it that reaches and towers, And, grasping blindly above it for light, Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers...