THE EARLY ATOMISTS, ESPECIALLY DEMOKRITOS
Materialism one of the earliest attempts at a philosophical theory of
the world; conflict between philosophy and religion, 3. Evidence of
this conflict in Ancient Greece, 5. Intercourse with the East; com-
merce; rise of philosophy, 8. Influence of mathematics and the
study of nature, 9. The prevalence of deduction, II.
Strict carry-
ing out of Materialism by Atomism, 13. Demokritos, his life and
character, 15. His doctrines, 18. Eternity of matter, 19. Neces-
sity, 20. The atoms and void space, 22. Formations of worlds, 24.
Qualities of things, and of the atoms, 27. The soul, 28. Ethic, 31.
Empedokles and the origin of adaptations, 32.
the universal; preparation for it by the Sophists, 55. The causes
of progress by antitheses, and of the combination of great advances
with reactionary elements, 57. State of things in Athens, 58.
Sokrates as a religious reformer, 60. Contents and tendency of his
philosophy, 63. Plato, his intellectual tendency and development,
71. His conception of the universal, 75. The 'ideas' and the
'myth' in the service of speculation, 77. Aristotle; not an Empi-
ricist, but a system-maker, 8o. His teleology, 83. His doctrine of
substance; name and essence, 85. Method, 88. Criticism of the
Aristotelian philosophy, 90.
Intermittent influence of Greek Materialism, 93. Character of post-
Aristotelian Materialism; ethical aim predominant, 95. The 'Ma-
terialism' of the Stoics, 96. Epikuros, his life and character, 98.
His reverence of the gods, 100. Deliverance from superstition and the
fear of death, 101. Doctrine of pleasure, 102. Physics, 103. Logic,
and the theory of knowledge, 107. Epikuros as author, III. Tran-
sition from the reign of philosophy to the predominance of the posi-
tive sciences; Alexandria, 112. Share of Materialism in the achieve-
ments of Greek scientific inquiry, 120.
Rome and Materialism, 126. Lucretius; his character and tendency,
129. Contents of the First Book; religion as source of all evil, 132.
Nothing can come from nothing, and nothing can be annihilated,
133. Void space and atoms, 134. Praise of Empedokles; the in-
finity of the universe, 136. Idea of gravity, 137. Adaptations as
persistent case among all possible combinations, 138. Contents of
the Second Book; the atoms and their motion, 140. Origin of sen-
sation; the infinite number of originating and perishing worlds, 143.
Contents of the Third Book; the soul, 145. The vain fear of death,
147. Contents of the Fourth Book; the special anthropology, 149.
Contents of the Fifth Book; cosmogony, 149. The method of pos-
sibilities in the explanation of nature, 150. Development of man-
kind; origin of speech, of the arts, of political communities, 152.
Religion, 155. Contents of the Sixth Book; meteoric phenomena;
discases; Avernian spots, 155. Explanation of magnetic attraction,
157.
Decay of the ancient civilisation, 161. Influence of slavery; of the mix-
ture of religions; of half-culture, 164. Infidelity and superstition;
Materialism of life; luxuriance of vice and of religions, 165. Chris-
tianity, 169. Common features of the Monotheistic religions, 172.
The Mosaic doctrine of creation, 174. Purely spiritual conception of
God, 175. Strong opposition of Christianity to Materialism, 176.
More favourable attitude of Mohammedanism; Averroism; services
of the Arabians to natural science; Freethinking and toleration, 277.
Influence of Monotheism on the aesthetic appreciation of nature, 184.
SCHOLASTICISM, AND THE PREDOMINANCE OF THE ARISTOTELIAN
NOTIONS OF MATTER AND FORM
Pp. 187-214
The Aristotelian confusion of name and thing as basis of the Scholastic
philosophy, 187. The Platonic conception of genus and species, 190.
Fundamental ideas of the Aristotelian metaphysic, 192. Criticism
of Aristotle's notion of Potentiality, 194. Criticism of the notion of
Substance, 198. Matter, 200. Modern modifications of this notion,
201. Influence of the Aristotelian notions on the doctrine of the
soul, 202. The question of Universals; Nominalists and Realists,
207. Influence of Averroism; of the Byzantine logic, 210. Nomi-
nalism as forerunner of Empiricism, 213.
Scholasticism as a bond of union in the civilisation of Europe, 215. The
Renascence movement ends with the reform of philosophy, 216. The
doctrine of twofold truth, 218. Averroism in Padua, 219. Petrus
Pomponatius, 220. Nicolaus de Autricuria, 225. Laurentius Valla,
226. Melanchthon and various psychologists of the Reformation
period, 227. Copernicus, 229. Giordano Bruno, 232. Bacon of
Verulam, 236. Descartes, 241. The soul with Bacon and Descartes,
244. Influence of animal psychology, 245. Descartes' system, and
his real opinions, 246.
GASSENDI
Pp. 253-269
Gassendi as restorer of Epikureanism, 253. Choice of this system with
reference to the needs of the time, especially in respect of scientific
inquiry, 254. Compromise with theology, 257. Gassendi's youth;
the 'Exercitationes Paradoxicae,' 258. His character, 259. Polemic
against Descartes, 260. His doctrines, 263. His death; his import-
ance for the reform of physics, and the philosophy of nature, 269.
Hobbes's development, 270. Labours and experiences during his stay in
France, 272. Definition of philosophy, 274. Method; connection
with Descartes, not with Bacon; his recognition of great modern dis-
coveries, 276. Attack upon theology, 279. Hobbes's political sys-
tem, 280. Definition of religion, 283. Miracles, 284. Physical
principles, 285. Relativity, 287. Theory of sensation, 288. The
universe and the corporeality of God, 290.
THE LATER WORKINGS OF MATERIALISM IN ENGLAND Pp. 291-330
Connection between the Materialism of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries, 291. Circumstances in England favouring the spread of
Materialism, 292. The union of scientific Materialism with religious
faith; Boyle and Newton, 298. Boyle; his life and character, 300.
His predilection for experiment, 302. Adheres to the mechanical
theory of the universe, 303. Newton's life and character, 306. Con-
siderations on the true nature of Newton's discovery; he shared the
general belief in a physical cause of gravity, 308. The idea that this
hypothetical agent determines also the motion of the heavenly
bodies lay very near, and the way was already prepared for it, 309.
The reference of the combined influence to the individual particles
was a consequence of Atomism, 311. The supposition of an impon-
derable matter, producing gravitation by its impulse, was already
prepared for, through Hobbes's relative treatment of the notion of
atoms, 311. Newton declares most distinctly against the now pre-
vailing notion of his doctrine, 312. But he separates the physical
from the mathematical side of the question, 314. From the triumph
of purely mathematical achievements arose a new physics, 315. In-
fluence of the political activities of the age on the consequences of
the systems, 317. John Locke, his life and intellectual development,
318. His "Essay concerning Human Understanding," 320. Other
writings, 323. John Toland, his idea of a philosophical cultus, 324.
The treatise on "Motion Essential to Matter," 326.
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