Matter for Materialists. The Beginning: its When and its How

Abstract

THIS age is essentially a materialistic one, but few are found who adhere to systems of philosophy based on the assumption that matter has no real existence. Mr. Doubleday, however, is one of the few, and he has published “a series of letters in vindication and extension of the principles regarding the nature of existence of the Right Rev. Dr. Berkeley, Lord Bishop of Cloyne.” His argument is that our notions of time, motion, and magnitude are merely relative; that the idea of space in the abstract is entirely beyond the grasp of the human mind, and leads to a series of absurdities and contradictions. But without such a conception, our notions as to matter are untenable, and hence we are driven to seek for other principles to explain the nature of existence. These Mr. Doubleday believes are to be found in the system of philosophy which Bishop Berkeley founded, or rather the idea of which he indicated, although he did not live to bring it to perfection. This, the most purely idealistic system ever promulgated, entirely denies the existence of matter, and holds that there are only spirits, thinking beings whose nature consists of conception and volition; whose sensations are derived from one superior Spirit in whom they exist. Mr. Doubleday, after endeavouring to show that unless we adopt this view we are led into innumerable contradictions, asserts that materialism is the parent of scepticism, since a mind which finds itself involved in a hopeless struggle to reconcile inconsistencies, takes refuge in believing nothing. All this the author expresses clearly and concisely, so that even those who are not inclined to accept his views will read his work with pleasure, and are sure to glean some new ideas from it. At the same time, when opinions almost universally held are attacked, it is necessaiy that he who assails them should be scrupulously accurate even in matters of little importance. Therefore it is a bad fault that we find in this work chemical formulæ, given at the very outset, in which P is taken as the symbol of Platinum, and Ch as that of Chlorine. It is also astonishing to find any one who supports the “emission” theory of heat, and who does so chiefly by quibbling about the expressions used by those who have so conclusively shown that heat is a mode of motion.

Matter for Materialists.

By Thomas Doubleday. (London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer; Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Andrew Reid, 1870).

The Beginning: its When and its How.

By Mungo Ponton. (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1871.)