Physiology v. metaphysics in relation to mind / by Walter Hayle Walshe.

  • Walshe, Walter Hayle, 1812-1892.
Date:
1884
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Physiology v. metaphysics in relation to mind / by Walter Hayle Walshe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    3/26
    INTRODUCTION. Few physiologists, mixing in general society, can have failed to notice how common it is to hear their psycho- logical brethren (if referred to at all) stigmatised as atheists; and this alike in coteries distinguished for pugnacious reli- gious dogmatism, and in social circles where indifferentism marks the prevailing tone of thought. The acrimony with which the charge is made apparently increases, on the one hand, in the direct ratio of the bigotry or religious fervour, and, on the other, in the inverse ratio of the scientific enlightenment, of different speakers. Furthermore, in certain cliques a shrewd suspicion seems to have arisen that, as any whole includes its parts, physiology in general (nay, even medical science at large,) is chargeable with the delinquencies of its cerebral department, and is hence con- demned by these judges as a representative in its entirety of atheistic proclivity and purpose. An illustration in point may be found in the columns of the leading daily journal, wherein the reviewer of the volumes of Bain, Bastian, and Luys on Mind, Body, and Brain “ need scarcely say that in all three works the physiological (some would say mate- rialistic) aspects of the subject are strongly insisted upon.”* No doubt some would say so, and thence at a bound jump to the conclusion (a foregone one with all who use the word “ materialist” in an adverse sense) that all these authors are “ atheists.” In point of fact, the masses are hardly wiser in their estimate of medical belief than two centuries ago, when lay smartness and ignorance combined had fashioned the libellous apophthegm: “ Ubi tres medici, ibi duo atheiy\ In striking contrast to this, metaphysical psychologists, though inquiring as boldly from their point of view into * The Times^ Jan. 19th, 1883. f Browne : Religio Medici.