PATER’S CHATS WITH THE BOYS

Otago Witness, Issue 3755, 2 March 1926, Page 80

PATER’S CHATS WITH THE BOYS

A PHILOSOPHER AND SOME CRITICISM. Forsyth, February 17, 1926. Dear Pater,—l am writing you to give you my idea in connection with a certain matter touched upon in your column—the origin of life. I shall proceed to try to prove my ideas from the material side, which is naturally subsequent to the ideal view of speculative philosophers. My ideas are the outcome of speculations of my own, and are not derived from “Cousin’s Psychology,” a book obtainable in our local library. Before entering upon the discussion 1 may state I am just a youthful philosopher, being only three years beyond my majority, and that, as I read your regular articles in the Otago Witness, I should like to compliment you on their general interest and instructiveness. Since leaving school at the age of 15 to work on our farm I have endeavoured to acquire general knowledge by studying the thoughts or speculations of others, such as are to be found in books, pamphlets, newspapers, etc. After arriving at the age of 16 years the impulse to in dulge in speculative philosophy seized upon my mind, and in my spare time I express my deductions in the form of essay writing. I do that for mv own satisfaction, pleasure, practice, and education. In this wav I have put on paper much of my youthful speculations, and I have also many synopses of essays on various subjects. I read your article of February 9, and the contents of it emboldened me to forward you my views upon the subject. I agree with you that the philosopher manipulates words and phrases to express his ideas, and does so to express his ideals or to explain the reason or purpose of things, and prefers to speculate upon higher levels than the material or lower things that most concern the average man. Experimental knowledge is slower and more confined in compass than speculative reasoning, which includes in its view everything in the world .seen and unseen; so physical or actual knowledge must be only a part of general philosophy. The philosophy of the experimenter or technician is practical therefore and narrower in' scope, and also the speculative philosopher can conceive in a given time of much more brevity all that the scientist or technician can give the world, though he does not do it in an actual or practical way. He is a man of theory, whom the technician follows, and whose ideas he works out, but he manipulates words and phrases into ideas more broadly and more skilfully than the practical or experimental .man. He has greater depth of mind and greater ability to think wider than the more" practical mind which gives the world technical knowledge. (This may be true, but it is the practical man, the experimenter or technician-, a Faraday or an Edison, that do.'S most for the practical benefit of mankind. Macaulay says a man who can make a pair of boots is of more use to the world than dozens of philosophers.—Pater). I herein* air my views about the noint you have raised—the great mystery of nature and the purpose of life. You have said that man can never answer the question : “What is life?” I claim no pretensions to be able to answer this question, but among my many speculations I have an hypothesis to account for life. It is as follows: Life is organic existence. Nature is a collection of individual and collective forms and functions known as material existence. Life or organic existence is a diversion or branch of material existence, and is characterised by its forms being made up of cells, a feature absent in inorganic existence. All nature has a great variety of specific forms and functions, just as suns are great balls of fire radiating heat and light, and controlling planets, or again, for example, atmospheric charges of electricity creating friction and emitting flashes of light and causing peals of thunder. Life is an effect of nature, having forms and functions peculiar to itself. Life is divided into two great phases: the conscious and the unconscious, which respectively include locomotive and stationary forms of existence. The unconscious and stationary forms of life are in main grasses, shrubs, and trees, and is known as the vegetable creation. They are not conscious of their physical surroundings, and do not possess independent means to travel fyom place to place. The conscious and locomotive forms of life are in the main mamals, birds, fishes, and insects, and are known as the animal creation. They are conscious of their physical surroundings, and possess the faculties to travel from place to place at their individual or collective discretion. I prescribe to the belief that life (but I don’t say original life) was created by a directing intelligence and creative means. It is not our business to conjecture the nature of this directing intelligence; but a being of man’s nature, possessing physical perfection, and especially the ability of super-geniuses, could, aided by their superior reasoning minds and methods, and by developing scientific apparatus yet to be made by him, will probably find the cause and the way to create life. Should you desire to know by speculations on other matters I shall he glad to forward them.—l am, etc, CONTRIBUTOR. Pater begs to point out to “Contributor” that his speculations are far from ex- . plaining what life is in itself or “per se,” as expressed more neatly in Latin. He has merely enumerated in a biological manner the physical manifestation of that mysterious something or power which we call life in contradiction to the inorganic world of the geologists. Pater would

also like to point out to Lis thinking and appreciative reader that modem science and discovery is leading to the idea that there is no absolute dividing line between the organic and inorganic phases of existing things, nor even between material and spiritual life or existence. A plant that has the power of locomotion is known, and among the lowest forms of animal and vegetable life, it is almost imposible to say which is which. Professor Base, of the Calcutta University, is now able, after long years of research and experiment, to show that even metals and minerals are sensitive to heat, and to injuries by poisons and force, and so have some elements of a life and consciousness of their own. Hocks, we know, under certain conditions, die and decay. Molten volcanic lava, if allowed to cool slowly, forms colonies or crystals of materials of certain definite elements always in certain definite shapes; and moreover, each kind of crystal so formed has vibrations peculiar to itself. It is also becoming increasingly dou! • ful whether we can say that in plant li. there are not degrees of consciousne^. It then appears that all is life, and tha* the Pantheists, who believe so, are the philosophers who are nearest the truth. “Contributor" is apparently a thinking young fellow; but Pater »vould advise him never to lose sight of the practical and needful things of life while he continues his speculations upon the mysteries of Nature or on the why and the wherefore of things. Speculation is a fine thing; it gives great pleasure to thinking men, but seldom pays. So do not lose sigh l of the end in the means. Scientific discovery and mechanical inventions and improvements are making men intensely practical and unkind to the useful or so-called utilitarian view and outlook upon things and upon life of individuals, and therefore to size men up or to measure their value to the community accordingly. In conclusion, Pater has to thank “Contributor* for furnishing him with something to thereby “hang a tale,” but before closing his criticism he would like to congratulate “Contributor” in his efforts to think seriously, and upon being blest with the power and desire to do so. Pater would say further, though the road to travel in the direction of philosophy is a hard one. it has pleasures, and recompenses both by the roadside and at the end—not the end of philosophy—but at, or rather, near the end of one’s day, when thought and contemplation does make up for the other things of life which have ceased to please. He would also advise “Contributor” to read “Macaulay’s Essays,” Bacon’s “Novum Organum,” *'l\lilton’s Essays,” Hobbes’ “Leviathan,” some books on biology and geology, and then a book procurable in booksellers’ shops, called the “History of Philosophy.” But again, let such reading be the hobby of leisure hours, and never lose sight of the practical. One will be all the better a philosopher who can maintain the balance between commonsense and vision, so that he will not become an unpractical visionary whose usefulness in society is most doubtful. Serious and logical' thinkers are what the world wants, and the more of such that we can raise in New Zealand the greater will be her future type of men.