Naturalism and Agnosticism: The Gifford Lectures Delivered Before the University of Aberdeen in the Years 1896-1898, Vol. 1 (Classic Reprint)

These lectures do not form a systematic treatise. They only attempt to discuss in a popular way certain assumptions of modern science which have led to a widespread, but more or less tacit, rejection of idealistic views of the world. These assumptions are, of course, no part of the general body of the natural sciences, but Jrather prepossessions that, after gradually taking shape in the minds of many absorbed in scientific studies, have entered into the current thought of our time. Though, as I believe, these prepossessions will prove to be illgrounded and mistaken, yet they are nevertheless the almost inevitable outcome of the standpoint and the premisses from which the natural sciences start. If with the history of science and the results of science before us we pass straight on to the construction of a philosophy, idealism has no chance. But, in truth, modern science hardly needs to construct its philosophy; for, without any conscious labour on its part, the naturalistic view of the world seems to stand out clearly of itself. Figuratively speaking we have, as it were, the nebular hypothesis exemplified in the evolution of knowledge. (A nd for Mr. Spencer, by the way, the exemplification is more than figurative.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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