Matter And Spirit - A Study In Mind And Body In Their Relation To The Spiritual Life

MATTER AND SPIRIT A STUDY OF MIND AND BODY IN THEIR RELATION TO THE SPIRITUAL LIFE BY JAMES BISSETT PRATT, Pn. D. PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN WILLIAMS COLLEGE LONDON GEORGE ALLEN UNWIN LTD. RUSKIN HOUSE, 40 MUSEUM STREET, W. C. i COPYRIGHT, W22, Y THE MACMTLLVX COMPANY l- irst Published in Jnut Hrhuin, h 2. PRINTKH IV THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN GRATEFUL MEMORY OF WILLIAM JAMES PREFACE The principal excuse for a new book on the eternal problem of matter and mind is just the fact that the problem is eternal. And not only is it eternal it is so complex that there is no end of illuminating ways in which it may be presented. A further ex cuse, if it be needed, is to be found in the many new attitudes toward the question which contemporary thought has suggested. A fairly rapid survey of the various answers, old and new, which have been given to our question a birds eye view, so to speak, of this ancient problem in its modern setting seems to be called for by the times in which we live. The need for such a review becomes more patent the mo ment one stops to consider the absolutely central place of the mind-body problem in metaphysical speculation, and the fundamental nature of meta physics in knowledge and in life. If we knew just how mind affects body and how body affects mind we should have the clew to many a philosophical riddle, and a clew that would give us much-needed guidance not only in philosophy but in many a vii viii PREFACE region of practical, moral, and religious activity and experience in which our generation is groping rather blindly and is longing very eagerly for more light. If there be anything individual about this book it is, I suppose, its outspoken defense ofDualism. The time has come, as it seems to me, for those of us and we are many who refuse to be brow-beaten by the fantastic exaggerations of a dogmatic Nat uralism and who are no longer to be fooled by the spiritual phraseology of a monistic Idealism which is really no less destructive to most of mans spiritual values and most of his dearest hopes than is Naturalism itself it is time, I say, for those of us who cannot accept either of these most unem pirical philosophies to come forward frankly with the opposing view and call ourselves dualists before our critics have the opportunity of branding us with that opprobrious title. For my part, at any rate, I am glad to accept the accusation and to be called, as a writer in a religious periodical re cently called me, an avowed dualist and un ashamed Derogatory epithets seldom hurt if accepted willingly. Puritan and Unitarian have long since become at least respectable, and even Yankee has not proved fatal. PREFACE ix The material here presented is a somewhat ampli fied form of the Nathaniel W. Taylor Lectures which I delivered at the Yale Divinity School in April, 1922. One of the additions to the original addresses which is now the latter part of Lecture I appeared, in modified form, in the Journal of Phi losophy and to the editors of that periodical I am indebted for their kind permission to reprint it here. Most of all am I indebted to my kind hosts at New Haven notably Professor Sneath, Professor Macin tosh, and Dean Brown for the stimulus and the encouragement which made the original lectures pos sible and which emboldened me to publish them in their present form. Williamstown, Mass., July, 1922. iFor June 22, 1922 under the title TheNew Materialism. CONTENTS LECTURE PAGE I THE MIND-BODY PROBLEM AND THE MATE RIALISTIC SOLUTION 3 II PARALLELISM 48 III THE DENIAL OF THE PROBLEM ... 89 IV THE DIFFICULTIES OF INTERACTION . . 131 V A DUALISM OF PROCESS 167 VI THE CONSEQUENCES OF DUALISM IN MORAL ITY AND RELIGION 197 INDEX 231