力と生命

Abstract

Whereas mind in its essence is thinking and matter is extension, the essence of life lies in force, which may be characterized as action-passion. The primordial form of this action-passion is found in living bodies; its structure may be expressed in the formula : S〔C〔α⊆β〕⊆M〕⊆O. The present paper discusses how this formula is introduced and what it means. The points that should be particularly stressed are : that what constitutes force is tension ; that this means the dualistic unity of the inward unification and the outward activity; that living things are individuals, which are graded the higher, as they are the more of the individual. And this enables us to explain the origin and evolution of life, and also the various forms of force. Life is individualization; and while the internal individualization develops organization, the external individualization leads to social associations. As to the former aspect, consciousness comes into being from out of the active-passive interrelations between living bodies and their environments, bringing out in turn : affection, sensation, perception and apperception. Affection is le sens de vie in general; in the stage of sensation the ego still remains passive ; in perception it turns to be active, sciences now being brought to birth and bodily power being surpassed by mechanical power ; apperception is self-consciousness, and it is in this stage that philosophy forms itself. On the other hand, associations, starting from colonies of virus, bacteria etc., proceed in their last stage through human Gemeinschaft to Gesellschaft, where each human being establishes his own autonomy, personality and freedom, the world comes to be dominated by money and might, and mechanical power is put under the control of economic and political powers. In philosophy, however, which is the se f-consciousness of the totality of human existence, bio-psychic as well as historicosocial, force reaches its highest form, which makes mankind act, without constraining to, solely by being itself truth. Lying at the basis of the whole argument is the thought : that tension leads to both intention and extension, and that “to have” is still more fundamental than “to know” and “to be”.