The Foundations of Western Science: Materialism, Empiricism, and Determinism

Ben Lazare Mijuskovic

Chapter 2 The Foundations of Western Science: Materialism, Empiricism, and Determinism

In: Platoâs Battle between the Gods and the Giants and Its Continuing Relevance in the Speculative Philosophy of History

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Ben Lazare Mijuskovic

Ben Lazare Mijuskovic
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 6â34

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004713352_003

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Abstract

This chapter begins by citing an ancient metaphysical first principle, as it reductively grounds the multiple structures of our empirical sciences under the assumption that all reality is reducible to three underlying features. The interminable voids of space; the presence of innumerable material objects; and their supplemented motions throughout empty space. From these three assumed meta-principles, all else follows.

âWe distinguish between relative and absolute qualities, between subjective and absolute truth. Our analysis has struck deeper roots. It has discovered at least a subjective element in the so called objective or primary qualities [i.e. the extended and material quantities] of things, and on the other hand, it has left us with no shadow of a doubt that the production of the infinite varieties of subjective impressions is no anarchical process but is indissolubly bound by strict laws of causation and the determinism of scientific necessity. The discovery of that subjective element, and the objective qualities of things, will occupy us at a later period, when we reach the so-called Cyrenaic philosophers, of whom Berkeley and Hume were the intellectual heirs, and we shall presently see that Democritus, no less than his modern successors, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke was familiar with these discoveries. Nay, even the indefeasible validity of the deterministic law of causation as taught by Leucippus admitted of no exception whatsoever. On the present occasion, Democritus was merely concerned to give utterance as emphatically and unreservedly as possible to a novel truth of fundamental importance. A striking parallel is supplied by the manner in which another and perhaps and yet greater thinker seized and expressed the same fundamental principle. The following words in which it might be erroneous to trace the influence of Democritus, occur in the polemic entitled, âThe Assayer,â and written by Galileo Galilei. To quote, âIf I represent a material or bodily substance to myself, I cannot but represent it as an appearance, as bounded by Epicurean limits and possessed of this or that shape situated on this or that spot, as at rest, or in motion, as touched or not causally touched by another body, and so forth. At the same time, he was equally convinced âthat those tastes, colours, smells, etc. in relation to the object in which they reside are nothing but mere names (non sieno alto che puri nomi (Theodor Gomperz).

This quotation declares both the split between Gods and Giants, metaphysical and epistemic dualism, matter and mind, physical quantity and mental quality, and fact 3and value, as discussed in the chapter by Democritus, Leucippus, Epicurus, Lucretius, Galileo, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, David Hume, T. H. Green, G. E. Moore, Bertrand Russell, Ludvig Wittgenstein, A. J. Ayer, Gilbert Ryle, D. M. Armstrong, and the conflict between science and humanism, and other contemporary assorted linguistic and analytic philosophers.

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Platoâs Battle between the Gods and the Giants and Its Continuing Relevance in the Speculative Philosophy of History

Series:Â Value Inquiry Book Series, Volume: 399Â andÂ Cognitive Science, Volume: 399

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004713352

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 07 Dec 2024

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Chapter 2 The Foundations of Western Science: Materialism, Empiricism, and Determinism

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Platoâs Battle between the Gods and the Giants and Its Continuing Relevance in the Speculative Philosophy of History

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Platoâs Battle between the Gods and the Giants and Its Continuing Relevance in the Speculative Philosophy of History