Byelaeff (1810-1873), a Russian historian and student of old Russian law; has told better than any other historian, in four small volumes ("Tales from Russian History"), the inner life of the medieval republics of Novgorod and Pskov. Has also written an excellent history of the Russian Peasantry and a work on Russian annals.
Cdbet, Etienne (1788-1856), French Communist, who developed his ideas in his journal, Le Populaire; and published in 1842 his chief work, "A Journey to Icaria," in which he developed in full his theory of authoritarian State Communism. This work was widely read and went through many editions, that of 1856 containing an analysis of the predecessors of Cabet, including those of the French Revolution. In 1848 he attempted to put his ideas into practice in Texas, and later on in the State of Illinois, but failed. Still, the colony, "Young Icaria," continued to exist in the " eighties " of last century, Clausius, Rudolf (1822-1888), German physicist, renowned for his studies on optics, electricity, and especially the mechanical theory of heat, of which he established one of the fundamental laws.
Comte, Auguste (1798-1857), the founder of Positivism. His "Course of Positive Philosophy" is an attempt at working out a synthetic philosophy of all human knowledge on a purely scientific foundation. Positive philosophy meant, in Comte's conception, the following: — He established that all human knowledge began first as theological con- ceptions (for instance, man considers thunder as an expression of Glossary. 99 Glossary. 99 discontent of a divinity, and he explains all facts of Nature as acts of the will of various gods). Then man goes over to the metaphysical phase, and explains all acts of Nature by some abstract forces ("vital force," "soul of Nature," etc.); and finally he reaches the positive phase when he gives up the research of "final causes" and "substances," and tries only to find out the laws of the phenomena which should merely express the relations between them and their succession. In his second work, "Positive Politics," Comte, however — contrary to the very essence of his philosophy — endeavoured to lay the foundation of a religion, of which the divinity was "Humanity." The Positive philosophy of Comte exercised a deep influence upon all the science and philosophy of the second half of the nineteenth century.
Considirant, "Victor (1802-1893), French Socialist writer, follower of Fourier, whose work he continued. Edited. La Phalange in 1887, and La Dimocratie Pacifique in 1845. Tried later on to found & phalansth-e in Texas. Developed the ideas of Fourier in a series of works of great value, of which the chief are: "Social Destiny," 1834; "Theory of Natural and Attractive Education," 1835; "Principles of Socialism: Manifesto of the Pacific Democracy," published in 1843, prosecuted, and published in a second edition in 1847 — its economical principles, as shown by "W. Tcherkesoff, represent the substance of those of the "Communist Manifesto" of Marx and Engels; "Socialism Before the Old World," 1848, an excellent review of the different schools of Socialism.
Darwin, Charles (1809-1882), the most renowned naturalist of our own times. Science owes to him that he proved the variability of the species of plants and animals by such a rich mass of facts that the whole science of organic beings (Biology) felt the effect of his work. Boffon and Lamarck in 1801-9 had already maintained the variability of species and the descent of all species of plants and animals from some common ancestors. Darwin worked out this hypothesis on a scientific basis, and endeavoured to show that, given the immense number of individual variations which continually appear in every species, natural selection in the struggle for life (or the survival of the fittest) would be quite suflScient to explain the gradual development of all the existing species of plants and animals, including man, and to account for the wonderful accommodation of most of them to their surroundings from the action alone of natural cause*, without the intervention of a guiding power. His theories were admirably explained in a very simple form by Huxley ("Lectures to Working Men"). His two chief works are " Origin of Species," 1859, and " Descent of Man," 1871.
Diderot, Denis (1713-1784), French philosopher. After having been prosecuted for his "Philosophical Thoughts," 1746, and imprisoned for his "Letters on the Blind," 1749, he conceived and realised the idea of the "General Encyclopaedia," an immense work for that epoch, which he succeeded in bringing to an end in twenty-two years (1751-1772), with the 100 Modern Science and Anarchism.
collaboration of D'Alembert, Holbach, and all the best thinkers and men of science of the time — notwithstanding the intrigues directed against him by both the clergy and the civil authorities.
Encyclopaedists. — This is tho name given to the founders of, the contributors to, and the publishers of the great French " Encyclopaedia" (1751). The most prominent among them were D'Alembert and Diderot. This work was of immense importance for the philosophical development of Europe, because not only was it an endeavour to give the whole of the knowledge of the day in Mathematics, Natural Sciences, History, Art and Literature, all treated in an impartial way; but it also was the organ of all the thinkers of that time for the advanced, irreligious, rationalist thought of France in the eighteenth century. The name of Encyclopaedists ia also extended to all those who shared their ideas.
Feehner, Gustav (1801-1887), German physiologist and philosopher. Although a metaphysician and a follower of Schelling, he began to work out physical psychology on a purely experimental ground. Matter and Mind are for him of the same nature, and only represent for the human understanding two diflFerent views of the same phenomena. Their laws are the same. His "Elements of Psycho-Physics," an epoch-making work, appeared in 1860.
Fourier, rran9ois Marie Charles (1772-1837), French Socialist writer; with Robert Owen and Saint Simon, one of the three chief founders of modern Socialism. The chief idea of his theory was: A full development of human nature, free of all artificial fetters, is the absolutely necessary condition for the attainment of happiness and virtue in society, while misery and crime are the consequences of the unnatural constraint which present society imposes upon man, even for permitting him to work in order to satisfy his needs. The necessity of a reconstruction of society on the basis of intelligent association follows from these principles. Chief works: "Traite des Quatre Mouvements," 1808; "Le Nouveau Monde Industriel," 1829. An important school of Socialism, which included among its advocates Consid^rant, Leroui, and many others, was developed by his pupils. For information concerning them, see Kirkup's "History of Socialism."
Godwin, William (1756-1836), English political writer. His principal work was "An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness" (2 vols., London, 1793), in which he was the first to expound the ideas of Anarchist Communism. » By "political " justice he understands the realisation of the principles of morality and truth in the life of the community. He shows in his work that a Government, by the mere fact of its existence — by its very nature — stands in the way of the development of moral habits; so also private owner- ship; and he foresees the time when each one, free from coercion and acting in accordance with his own free will, will act for the good of the community — all being led in their actions by the principles of pure Glossary. 101 reason. Having been very nearly involved in a prosecution with his friends, accused of Jacobinism and Kepublicanism, Godwin left out of the second edition of his work on Political Justice all that he had written in a Communist sense in the first edition.
Ghove, William Robert (1811-1896), an English physicist; wrote in 1842 a most remarkable memoir, and in 1856 a book, on the unity of the physical forces, in which he proved that sound, heat, light, electricity, magnetism, and chemical action are not separate "substances" or "entities," as they had been described till then, but are merely different forms of vibrations of the molecules of which all physical bodies are made up. All these different forms of vibrations (formerly called /orcea) can be transformed into one another; and all of them are but different modes of mechanical movement. A mechanical mass-movement, such as the fall of a hammer on the anvil, or the rotation of the wheels of a train when a brake is applied, can produce all these modes of movement: sound, heat, light, electricity, and magnetism. And vice versd, all these kinds of molecular movement — sound, heat, light, electricity, magnetism, and chemical action — can be transformed into one another (heat — into light, or electricity, etc.), or into mass-movements of physical bodies, as we see in our steam engines and electrical railways. Grove also had the courage to ask the question whether universal gravitation is not a mere resultant of all these molecular vibrations going on all over the universe.
Haeckel, Ernst (born 1834), German biologist and philosopher. He was one of the first and one of the most enthusiastic followers of Darwin, and soon after the appearance of "Origin of Species" he published (in 1866) a most remarkable work, "General Morphology," followed by the "Natural History of Creation," in which he made the fijst attempt to find out the different stages of evolution from the simplest organisms up to man. In his later years he wrote two works, widely circulated now, "Monism as a Link between Religion and Science" and "The Riddle of the Universe," in which he cast aside the religious dualism which opposes the heavens to the earth, the soul to the body, and so on; but instead of coming to a purely dynamic conception of the universe, as might have been expected from his previous works, he came to the metaphysical (Hegelian) conception of the "Spirit" being an emanation of "Matter."
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm (1770-1831), a German philosopher, whose ideas exercised iu Germany a very deep influence on the thought of the nineteenth century during the period of reaction after the defeat of the Great French Revolution. His philosophical system divides itself into three cycles of thought. The first is Logic — the science of the " Idea in itself" (Idee an sichj. In the second part, the Philosophy of Nature, the Idea is treated in its "being," as something that has taken the form of its contradiction — i.e., of Nature and its beings and phenomena. * And in the third part, the Philosophy of the Mind, the process is described by 102 Modern Science and Anarchism.
which the Idea, which in Logic was the "Idea in itself," and in Nature the " Idea out of itself" (Idee ausser sichj, now appears as "The Mind " — as the "Idea in and for itself" (Idee an und fur sich). These three forms of the Idea are known as the thesis, the antithesis, and the synthesis. The evil which this philosophy has done in driving scientific research out of the sound ways it had opened by the end of the eighteenth century, and giving a new authority both to the Biblical interpretation of Nature and to the reign of sweeping generalisations based upon the use of metaphysical "words" having a vague and floating sense — can be best appreciated when we see how all the discoveries which were already prepared by the end of the eighteenth century were delayed in appearing for half a century; and also when we see the influence of this philosophy in political matters — the Hegelians maintaining that "all that exists is reasonable," and thus excusing the worst forms of political and religious reaction.
Helmholtt, Hermann-Ludwig {1821-1894), a great German physiologist and physicist. Has done very much for developing and spreading the mechanical comprehension of all physiological activity, and the idea of the unity of physical forces.
Herzen, Alexander (1812-1870), Russian political writer. Aftsr having been interned in an eastern province, left Russia and went to Italy and France, where he was friendly with all the advanced Socialists and Radicals. After the defeat of the Revolution of 1848, aided Proudhon in starting the newspaper Le Peuple. Expelled from France, went to England, where he founded the first "Free Russian Press," and at the end of the "fifties" began to publish a Russian paper, Kdlokol (The Bell), in collaboration with his great friend Ogareff' and TurgueneS", and later on with Bakunin. This paper, in which Herzen (in an admirable style) energetically fought for the abolition of serfdom and laid bare all the horrors of the absolute power, won a great reputation and had a great influence in Russia at the time of the liberation of the serfs. In 1863, when the Polish uprising began, Herzen and Bakunin warmly took up its defence. With the return of reaction the same year, the KdlokoVs influence came to an end. On account of his wide knowledge of history and his philosophical training, Herzen was one of the best political writers of his time in Europe; and his " Letters from France and Italy " and "From the Other Bank" ("De I'autre rive"), written after the defeat of the movements of 1848, are real works of art, apart from their political meaning; the same applies to his autobiography, "Past and Thoughts."
Hobbes, Thomas (1588-1679), one of the most original of English political writers and philosophers. His chief works were: "Leviathan," "De Give," "De Corpore Politico." Right, he maintained, is force: there is nothing that would be right or wrong in itself. He considered the savages as creatures continually struggling with each other, and saw Glossary. 103 in the fear that men had of each other, and in the necessity of getting out of the misery of their primitive conditions, the chief cause of the origin of the State. Consequently, he was a fierce champion of the ahsolnte power of kings, who had, according to his assertions, established peace, among the wild stems, and thus allowed them to reach better conditions. ' On the other hand, he was a resolute enemy of the Church as a political power. He was the first to formulate an absolutely irreligious, material- istic conception of the Universe.
Holbach, Paul (1723-1789), French philosopher, one of the Encyclo- paedists, who worked to establish a comprehensible system of knowledge of Nature and man upon a decidedly materialist basis. He did it in his principal work, "Systems de la Nature." In his other works, "La Morale Universelle " and "La Politique Naturelle," he demonstrated that religipn is not only useless, but is noxious for public morality and the happiness of the people.
Hutcheson, Francis (1694-1747), one of the chief representatives of the so-called Scotch philosophical school, which based its system of ethics on the principle of mutual sympathy. He endeavoured to prove that although we divide the motives by which our will is affected into egoistic and altruistic motives, nevertheless we approve only the latter and the actions inspired by them. This is the consequence of a " moral sense " with which Nature has endowed us. He developed these ideas in his works: "Enquiry into the Origins of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue," "Essay on Nature," and " Conduct of Passions and Affections."
Huxley, Thomas (1825-1895), English biologist, especially known for the gallant defence he made of Darwin's theory of evolution, at a time when Darwin was wildly assailed on all sides. Chief works: " Man's Place in Nature " (1863) and "Comparative Anatomy."
Inductive-Deductive Method — the method of modern science. It consists of the following: — (1) By observation ani experiment we try to gain a knowledge of the phenomena which we propose to study. (2) We discuss the accumulated facts, and see if they do not lead (Latin, indueere) to some generalisation, or to some hypothesis which would link together the mass of facts (e.g., the hypothesis which Laplace made to explain the facts offered by the structure of our solar system; or Darwin's hypothesis of descent, by evolution from a common stock, of all the plants and animal species which exist or have existed in past geological periods on the earth). (3) Then we deduce conclusions from this hypothesis (we make deductions), leading us to foresee new facts; and these conclusions must prove to be correct, if the induction — the generalisation — was correct. (4) We compare our deductions with the facts already accnmn- lated (§ 1). If necessary, new observations and experiments are made, in order to ascertain whether our hypothesis is in accordance with reality, and the hypothesis is either rejected or modified, until we find one which agrees with the present state of our knowledge. A hypothesis becomes a 104 Modern Science and Anarchism.
theory only after sucli a verification has been made; and it may be considered as a natural law only after it has stood the above test, and the cause, the reason of the hypothesis, has been discovered. Thus we describe Newton's induction of universal gravitation as a proved theory, because it has been confirmed by an enormous mass of facts, many of which seemed to be contradictory at first sight. And although we often speak also of the law of gravitation, this way of speaking is not quite correct, as the cause of this universal fact of gravitation is not yet discovered: it is only foreseen.
Jacobins, or Jacobinists, name given to the members of a club, consisting of middle-class Radicals, which played a prominent part in the Great French Revolution of 1789-1794. It contained in its midst most of the prominent Republican revolutionists, and was very much under the influence of Robespierre. It courageously fought against the royal power; but after that fell, it also struggled against the Club of the Cordeliers, to which belonged Danton, Hubert, and the most influential members of the Commune of Paris. During the period of the Terror, the Jacobin Club became a sort of Grand Jury of accusatioH. After the fall of Robespierre and his party, in July, 1794, it was closed. The word "Jacobinist" is now used to describe the advocates of a powerful, centralised revolutionary Government.
Joule, James Prescott (1818-1889), English physicist; determined the mechanical equivalent of heat. (See note on that subject.)
Kant, Inimanuel (1724-1804), German philosopher, whose philosophy exercised the deepest influence in the nineteenth century. In his earlier works he devoted himself chiefly to natural science, and almost at the same time as Laplace he formulated a hypothesis, quite similar to that of Laplace, of the origin of our solar system from a cooling mass of incan- descent gases. His principal work, however, was his "Critique of Pure Reason." There are, according to him, two difi'erent worlds: (1) the world of physical phenomena, which we can know in space and time, but which, in accordance with his philosophy of critical, transcendental idealism, are mere phenomena having no reality in themselves; and (2) the world of inborn ideas, "the things in themselves " (Binge an aich), which we can know in time, but not in space. The enigma of a world of "things in themselves" existing behind the phenomena, he tried to solve through the moral philosophy ("Critique of Practical Reason"). In this second great work he endeavoured to prove that Reason possesses the property of dictating to itself its own laws, and that it is the duty of the moral man to follow these prescriptions of his reason — " the categorical imperative." Upon the idea of the moral conscience he based the ideas of God, Immortality, and Liberty. In his philosophy of Law he developed the idea that an absolute respect for moral liberty had to be the founda- tion of all society and State-life, and in the realisation of this ideal of liberty he saw the future aim of all historical development.
Glossary. 105 Kostomaroff, Nicholas (1817-1885), a brilliant Russian historian, the founder of the Federalist school in the study of Russian history.
Lamarck, Jean Baptiste (1744-1829), French naturalist. He made an attempt at giving a complete classification of both the animals and plants. Having constructed a complete system, which was based on the variability of the animal and vegetable species ("Philosophic Zoologique"), he must be considered as the chief forerunner of Darwin. He explained the variation of organisms by their capacity to accommodate themselves to their snrroundings, as also by their use or disuse of their different organs — an idea which was bitterly combatted by Cuvier.
Laplace, Pierre (1749-1827), one of the greatest astronomers and mathematicians of all ages. His chief works are: "Exposition of a System of the Universe," in which he explained the probable, purely physical origin of our solar system out of a mass of incandescent gaseous matter; and " Treatise of Celestial Mechanics." He solved all problems of astronomy purely by a physical analysis.
Lavoisier, Antoine (17431794), great French founder of chemistry. Was the first to decompose water into its component elements, oxygen and hydrogen. Studied the theory of burning, of heat, and of fermenta- tion. Was the first to prove the indestructibility of matter by experiment. Chief work: "Traite elementaire de Chimie" (1789).
Lewes, George Henry (1817-1878), English physiologist and philo- sopher, who treated the problems of mind on a physiological basis, and was possessed of an admirable gift for popular exposition of scientific matter. Chief works: "Problems of Life and Mind " (which includes a volume given to "The Physical Basis of Mind"), "History of Philosophy," and "Physiology of Common Life."
Littri, Maximilien Emile (1801-1881), French philosopher and philologist. Was a warm follower of Auguste Comte's Positive philo- sophy, and did much to popularise it. Compiled the great monumental dictionary of the French language.
Lomondsqff, Mikhail (1711-1765), Russian writer in most varied branches. Author of odes, a Russian grammar, works of history, and several important works on physics, mineralogy, chemistry, and physical geography. In one of these last (on the Arctic regions) he expressed very definitely the mechanical theory of heat.
Lyell, Charles (1797-1876), renowned English geologist. His great work, "Principles of Geology," which has gone through many editions, was epoch-making, as it established beyond doubt, contrarily to the theories then current, the slow and gradual modifications of the earth's surface, through the accumulation of agencies now at work. He thus prepared the mind to accept the theory of evolution, advocated later on by Darwin. His work, "Antiquity of Man," published in 1863, established the great antiquity of the first human-like beings, and the fact of • Quaternary Glacial Period.
106 Modern Science and Anarchism.
Maine, Henry (1822-1888), English student of common law, ancient and modern, and the author of a remarkable work on the early village community. Chief works: " Village Communities in the East and West," and "Lectures on the Early History of Institutions."
Marx, Karl (1818-1883), founder of the Social Democratic school of Socialism. Having left Germany as a political refugee, settled first in Paris, where he published, with Ruge, a Radical paper in German. Expelled from France in 1844, and from Belgium in 1848, he settled in London, where he was, in 1864, one of the chief founders of the Inter- national Working Men's Association, and the intellectual leader of the General Council of the Association. Chief works: "The Misery of Philosophy" (1847) — a reply to Proudhon's "Philosophy of Misery" ("Economical Contradictions"); "Communist Manifesto" (1848), (about its origin, see W. TcherkesofiPs "Pages of Socialist History," 1896, and Professor Andler's "Historical Introduction" to it, in French, 1901); and especially his principal work, " Capital," of which the first (chief) volume appeared in 1867, containing a remarkable analysis of the genesis of capital, and became the foundation of the economical ideas of Social Democracy. Two more volumes of "Capital" — the last being a post- humous work — appeared later on.
Maurer, Georg Ludwig (1796-1872), a German historian, who has put on a scientific basis the study of th« old village community. Chief work: "Einleitung zur Geschichte der Mark-, Hof-, Dorf-fun-i Stadt- Verfassung."
Mechanical Theory of Heat, one of the greatest acquisitions of modern science. It consists in its being now proved that all the phenomena which we describe as heat phenomena (the heating of a body, its cooling, its melting, its boiling, the transformation of a liquid into a gaseous state, etc.) are the results of vibrations of the molecules of physical bodies. When the sum of these vibrational movements (invisible to the eye) which are going on in, let us say, a piece of iron, increases, the temperature of that piece of iron increases also. And vice versd. Heat is thus a mood of motion. This is why we can producs heat by friction. The mass-movement of a train which is brought to a state of rest by powerful brakes, is spent in the friction of the wheels of the train upon the rails, and there it appears as heat in the heated rails and as sjiorks thrown from under the wheels. The quantity of mechanical fores which is required to heat one pound of water by so many degrees can be measured; it has been measured with great accuracy; and this quantity is known as "the mechanical equivalent of heat." The mechanical theory of heat was foreseen, and even partly expressed, in the eighteenth century. * Later on, in the "twenties " of the nineteenth century, it was expressed by Signin senior, who had already made the necessary measure- ra&nts. Rudolf Meyer, a German doctor, was the first to formulate it, in 1845, in a comprehensible and correct form; but he was not listened to.