| CONTENTS | |
| [CHAPTER I] | |
| INTRODUCTORY | PAGE |
| Religion and Science defined. "Accurate and systematic knowledge" necessarily affects our "attitude to life." Canour systematised knowledge sanction a religious attitude? This the "religious problem." Religious harmony of Middle Ages. Will it return? | [1] |
| [CHAPTER II] | |
| THE DISSOLUTION OF THE OLD SYNTHESIS | |
| The old World-Scheme described. Aquinas and Scholasticism.Cusanus criticises conventional ideas of space. TheNew Astronomy of Copernicus. Bruno and an infiniteuniverse. Galileo's telescope. The New Physics and anautomatic universe. The New Logic. | [8] |
| [CHAPTER III] | |
| GROWTH OF THE MECHANICAL THEORY | |
| The New Science creates a New Philosophy. Universalityof Mechanics. Importance of Harvey's discovery. Descartesextends the mechanical theory to cover physiology and psychology.Hobbes and a naturalistic ethic. Newton extends theoperation of law from the earth to the heavens. Religiousattitude of these thinkers. Significance of their thought. | [18] |
| [CHAPTER IV] | |
| SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY REACTIONS | |
| A Law of Thought. Spinoza. A Mechanical Universespiritually interpreted. Natura Naturans, what it means.The Ethics. Spinoza's mysticism. His personality. Leibnizand a philosophy of personality. His monads. Pascal. Hissignificance. The Pensées. The eternal protest of religion.Man defies the universe. Results. | [28] |
| [CHAPTER V] | |
| RISE OF AN ANTI-RELIGIOUS SCIENCE | |
| Anti-clericalism in eighteenth-century France. Voltaire'spropaganda. Diderot and the Encyclopædists. Holbach'sSystem of Nature. Laplace's astronomy. Lavoisier and theNew Chemistry. Dalton's atomic theory. Results for religion. | [42] |
| [CHAPTER VI] | |
| RISE OF GERMAN IDEALISM | |
| Importance, for the mechanical view, of Locke's theory ofknowledge. Weakness of speculative philosophy. Rise of the"critical" philosophy. Kant. He seeks to solve the problem:How is knowledge possible? Kant's view of the mind'sfunction in knowledge. Mechanism a "form of thought,"subjective not objective. Kant's view of reality. Can weknow reality? The two worlds. | [52] |
| [CHAPTER VII] | |
| THE ROMANTIC MOVEMENT | |
| Kant clears the ground for a new philosophy. Significanceof Rousseau. His attitude to culture. The new philosophy inGermany, its goal. Fichte. Hegel a rationalistic-romanticist.His method. Hegelianism. Significance for religious thoughtof Schleiermacher. The autonomy of religion and religiousexperience. | [62] |
| [CHAPTER VIII] | |
| MECHANISM AND LIFE | |
| Rise of bio-chemistry and bio-physics in Germany. Significanceof these movements. The Origin of Species. Lamarck.The new geology. Darwin. Results of his theory. | [74] |
| [CHAPTER IX] | |
| MATERIALISM AND AGNOSTICISM | |
| Early decline of Romanticism in Germany. Comte and the"positive" philosophy. Materialism in Germany. Darwinismand the "argument from design." Haeckel. Spencerianevolutionism. Spencer's moral idealism. His philosophy ofreligion. Agnosticism. Rise of philosophic pessimism.Significance of Nietzsche. | [84] |
| [CHAPTER X] | |
| REACTIONS IN PHILOSOPHY | |
| German idealism naturalised in England by Coleridge andCarlyle. These writers described. Sartor Resartus. Idealismat Oxford, T. H. Green. F. H. Bradley. Balfour's plea for aphilosophy of science. Revival of Idealism in Germany.Lotze. His view of "values" and reality. | [98] |
| [CHAPTER XI] | |
| SOME RECENT TENDENCIES IN PHILOSOPHY | |
| A new philosophy of Science. Mach on "Economy ofThought." "Abstractness" and artificiality of scientificmethod. Boutroux and natural law. James' view of themind carried further by Bergson. His view of the intellect.What it can, and what it cannot, do for us. Intuition.Indeterminism and Pluralism. Leibniz revived. Ward'sphilosophy of personality. | [110] |
| [CHAPTER XII] | |
| SOME RECENT TENDENCIES IN SCIENCE | |
| The "New" Physics. New theories of matter. The "New"Biology. Driesch and neo-vitalism. The "New" Psychology."Spiritualism." The outlook for the future. | [125] |
| [CHAPTER XIII] | |
| SOME FINAL CONSIDERATIONS | |
| History of Thought supplies no material for dogmatising.Yet a progress of ideas is evident. Permanency of "spiritual"view of reality. Its continual revival. Sabatier's saying.Need of freedom, alike for religion and for science. | [137] |
INTRODUCTORY. RELIGION AND SCIENCE
Numerous attempts to define religion have made it evident that religion is indefinable. We may, however, say this much about it, that religion is an attitude towards life: a way of looking at existence. It is true that this definition is too wide, and includes things which are not religion—there are certain attitudes to life which are definitely anti-religious—that of the materialist, for instance. However, it will serve a purpose, and we can improve upon it as we proceed. It is a mistake to put too much faith in definitions: at any rate it is better to have our definitions (if have them we must) too wide than too narrow.
Science is, fortunately, much easier to define. Accurate and systematic knowledge is what we mean by science—knowledge about anything, provided that the facts are (so far as possible) accurately described and systematically classified. Professor Karl Pearson, the highest authority on the principles of scientific method and theory, writes: