Reader. A curious result indeed! By which of your senses do you perceive abstractions, such as philosophy, morality, affirmation, veracity? I put you the alternative: either show that you touch, hear, smell, taste, or see, with your material eyes, any of such abstract notions, or confess, according to the general result of your ridiculous modern investigations, that you can have none of such notions, and are essentially incapable of reasoning.
Büchner. You try to draw me out of the real question, sir.
Reader. By no means. It is your denial of our capability of knowing anything supersensual that draws us out of the question.
Büchner. My object was to show that there is no matter without force, and no force without matter. This proposition can be established without any special reference to our mental operations.
Reader. You may try; on condition, however, that our knowledge of the supersensible be not called in question.
Büchner. The science of force is physics. “This science makes us acquainted with eight different forces: gravitation, mechanical force, heat, light, electricity, magnetism, affinity, cohesion, which, inseparably united to matter, form and give shape to the world” (p. 18). Any force which cannot be reduced to a combination of these forces is therefore to be looked upon as chimerical. Nothing is more evident.
Reader. Evident? I think, doctor, if I were you, I would be ashamed of uttering such a rank sophism. You beg the question altogether. What right have you to assume that there are no real forces in the universe but those mentioned in our physical treatises? To assume this is to assume that there is nothing in the world but matter—the very thing which you should demonstrate. And therefore you are as far as ever from having shown your universal proposition, no force without matter. Indeed, you will never show it. Truth is stronger than you.
Büchner. Then tell me, sir, on what ground do you base your belief in the existence of supersensual forces?
Reader. Excuse me, doctor. We were not discussing the question, “What are my grounds for believing their existence?” Our question was, “What are your own grounds for proclaiming their non-existence?” [pg 444] When a man makes an assertion contrary to the common belief, it is his duty to give good reasons in its support. If he cannot, let him give up his assertion, and go back to the common belief. Common beliefs, on the contrary, are in no need of special demonstration so long as they are not attacked with plausible reasons. That there are supersensual forces is a common belief. As you have failed to adduce any serious proof to the contrary, this common belief remains unshaken. You ask on what grounds I base my belief. I might answer that I base it on the ground of universal consent, and I might show that this universal consent must have a universal foundation, which cannot be invalidated. But I will tell you a special reason for admitting supersensual forces. It is that there are facts which cannot be accounted for by the forces of matter.
Büchner. What fact? Do you mean the exploded fact of creation?