Collected Essays, Volume 1Macmillan, 1901 - Science |
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abiogenesis absolute action ancient animal spirits astronomy atomic believe body brain carbonic acid cause century chap conception condition consciousness consequence constitute contract Descartes discourse doctrine doubt effect energy epoch equal essay ethics evolution exertion existence fact force foundation freedom frog give rise Government hand heat Hobbes human hypothesis individual inequality jus naturale kinetic energy labour land law of nature less liberty limits living logical mankind matter means mechanical ment mind modern moral motion movements muscles natural knowledge natural right nerves observation organs ownership particles phenomena philosophers physical science Physiocrats physiology plants political possession practical present principles priori produced Progress and Poverty proposition protoplasm proved question reason reflex action result Rousseau scientific sense sensory social social contract society soul sovereign speculation spinal cord substance suppose theory things thought tigers tion true truth Ulpian volition whole
Popular passages
Page 397 - The state of Nature has a law of Nature to govern it, which obliges every one, and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions...
Page 32 - As when in heaven the stars about the moon Look beautiful, when all the winds are laid, And every height comes out, and jutting peak And valley, and the immeasurable heavens Break open to their highest, and all the stars Shine, and the Shepherd gladdens in his heart...
Page 244 - If these positions are well based, it follows that our mental conditions are simply the symbols in consciousness of the changes which take place automatically in the organism ; and that, to take an extreme illustration, the feeling we call volition is not the cause of a voluntary act, but the symbol of that state of the brain which is the immediate cause of that act.
Page 163 - If we take in our hand any volume, of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance; let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames: for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion.
Page 265 - And so whoever has the legislative or supreme power of any commonwealth is bound to govern by established standing laws, promulgated and known to the people, and not by extemporary decrees; by indifferent and upright judges who are to decide controversies by those laws...
Page 21 - Our business was (precluding matters of Theology and state affairs) to discourse and consider of Philosophical Enquiries, and such as related thereunto : as physick, anatomy, geometry, astronomy, navigation, staticks, magneticks, chymicks, mechanicks, and natural experiments ; with the state of these studies, as then cultivated at home and abroad.
Page 164 - In itself it is of little moment whether we express the phenomena of matter in terms of spirit, or the phenomena of spirit in terms of matter; matter may be regarded as a form of thought, thought may be regarded as a property of matter ; each statement has a certain relative truth. But with a view to the progress of science the materialistic terminology is in every way to be preferred...
Page 240 - The consciousness of brutes would appear to be related to the mechanism of their body simply as a collateral product of its working, and to be as completely without any power of modifying that working, as the steam-whistle which accompanies the work of a locomotive engine is without influence upon its machinery.
Page 265 - But though men when they enter into society give up the equality, liberty, and executive power they had in the state of Nature into the hands of the Society, to be so far disposed of by the legislative as the good of the society shall require, yet it being only with an intention in every one the better to preserve himself, his liberty and property (for no rational creature can be supposed to change his condition with an intention to be worse...
Page 266 - The Commonwealth seems to me to be a Society of Men constituted only for the procuring, preserving, and advancing of their own Civil Interests. Civil Interests I call Life, Liberty, Health, and Indolency of Body; and the Possession of outward things, such as Money, Lands, Houses, Furniture, and the like.