Tomorrow’s Miracles
(continued)
In all the ages of history, thinking men have been crucified either by institutions or the masses. But those very ideas, which at first seemed so mad and impossible, are those which science now uses to polish up its reputation.
Inevitably, the philosopher, the true searcher, is decried. But then, it is perfectly natural. His breadth of view is so great and penetrating that he can unify all the knowledge groups, taking his findings to discover a lower common denominator.
It is quite natural that he should do this, just as it is that his work should usually be spurned by his own generation.
Un-unified knowledge is that possessed by every animal or drudge. "A cake of soap cleans a shirt." "A cake of soap cleans a floor." "A cake of soap cleans the face."
Partially-unified knowledge on this subject would be: "A cake of soap cleans" and "let us see how many things a cake of soap will clean."
Completely-unified knowledge on the subject would be; "any agent which holds foreign matter in solution will clean."
The argument here is quite plain. Partially-unified knowledge has become a group of men all anxious to assemble data on the science of soap. The completely-unified knowledge opens up a new vista, the possibility of discovering some medium which will clean anything.
And if you think this is facetious, know that there is no medium which will clean everything and anything equally well. It would be essentially destructive to a million volumes of hard won data concerning soap. The philosopher has come against a resistant force. He reduced the matter to simplicity and indicated that it was necessary to search for a new cleaner, not a new method. Put into practice immediately and meting with success, the idea would destroy, for instance, the business of hundreds of soap factories and would, of course, throw umpteen thousand soap chemists out of excellent jobs.
There is nothing being used today except those ideas given to the world by philosophers. For instance, Spinoza is responsible for most of modern psychology. Plato wrote about psychoanalysis in his "Republic" (in addition to most of our ideas on the political side of the ledger as well). Aniximander (610-540 B.C.) outlined our theory of evolution and Empedocles (c490-c430 B.C.) developed it as far as we have gone, originating natural selection. Democritus said, "In reality, there are only atoms and the void," and went on to outline the theories of planetary evolution much as they are used today. The Ionian Greeks developed the major portion of our physics. Kant handed out the finishing touches, with Schopenhauer (a strange combination, this) on our psychology, Spencer on evolution; Newton put natural laws into equations and invented mathematics to work them. Spinoza went so far into the realm of the outer dark that no one has caught up to him yet, though the trails are being followed slowly and inexorably to the destinations he indicated. But science in each case contemporarily taught and used outworn systems and considered that it had reached an outer frontier when, in reality, science was always hundreds of years behind the philosophic frontier!
