Abstract
THE author tells us in the preface that he has devoted his intervals of rest during a ten months' tour through the most beautiful countries of Europe to the production of a popular exposition of the three tremendous subjects the names of which form the title of his book. This information puts the critic at an obvious disadvantage, for he is tempted to view indulgently, and as merely the natural efflorescence of holiday spirits, the reckless demolition of respectable opinions and the amazing logical feats that characterise Dr. Kassowitz's progress through his theme. But the reader (like Quintilian) can only stare and gasp when he finds, on the seventh page from the end, that the author regards his work as an attempt to purge the scientific interpretation of nature from the “metaphysical” elements that at present clog it. It is true that by the avoidance of metaphysics he means something quite different from a restriction to positive statements about the actually observed course of phenomena, for he does not feel himself debarred from deciding on a priori grounds such questions as the infinite divisibility of matter and the inheritance of acquired characters.
Welt-Leben-Seele. Ein System der Natürphilosophie in gemeinfasslicher Darstellung.
By Max Kassowitz. Pp. iv + 364. (Vienna: Verlag von Moritz Perles, 1908.) Price 5 Kr.
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Welt-Leben-Seele Ein System der Natürphilosophie in gemeinfasslicher Darstellung . Nature 79, 307 (1909). https://doi.org/10.1038/079307b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/079307b0