SECTION A

Alternative Theories of Life and Mind at the Level of Enlightened Common-sense

Introductory Remarks

Est quedam . . . . etiam nesciendi ars et scientia; nam, si turpe est nescire quae possunt sciri, non minus turpe est scire se putare quae sciri nequeunt." (Lobeck, Aglaophamus, Bk. III: Proem.)

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SECTION A

ALTERNATIVE THEORIES OF LIFE AND MIND AT THE
LEVEL OF ENLIGHTENED COMMON-SENSE

Introductory Remarks

In this section I propose to consider the problem of the mind's place in Nature, as it presents itself to educated persons who are acquainted in outline with the concepts and results of modern science. The restriction that I here impose on myself is that I take matter and mind to be very much as they appear to be to educated common-sense, and do not for the present consider in detail the modifications which philosophic criticism may introduce into those concepts. It will of course be necessary to remove this restriction at a later stage of the book; and this may entail considerable modifications in any tentative conclusions that we may reach here. A discussion at the present level, though necessarily imperfect, would be by no means useless, even though it were not to be corrected by later and more accurate investigations. For there really is a good deal to be said, and a good many confusions to be cleared up, in the ordinary discussions about Mechanism and Vitalism or Interaction and Parallelism.

The section is divided into two chapters; the first on Mechanism and its Alternatives, and the second on The Traditional Problem of Body and Mind. I should like to point out that the first of these chapters is essentially a discussion of Specific-Property Monism and Pluralism within the material realm; and that it has a most important bearing on "the connexion or lack of connexion between the various sciences". If we give one kind of answer to the questions which are raised in that chapter we can hold that strictly there is one and only one science of matter, and that all the apparently different sciences which deal with various aspects of the material realm are merely departments of it. If we give the other kind of answer we shall have to hold that, even within the realm of matter, there is a plurality of sciences which are irreducible to each other, though they can be arranged in a hierarchical order.

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Contents -- Go to Chapter II

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