Force and matter : empirico-philosophical studies, intelligibly rendered with introduction written for the English edition / by Louis Büchner ; edited by J. Frederick Collingwood.

  • Büchner, Ludwig, 1824-1899.
Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Force and matter : empirico-philosophical studies, intelligibly rendered with introduction written for the English edition / by Louis Büchner ; edited by J. Frederick Collingwood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    by the strong, lias no right to complain that the natural sciences subvert the foundations of its morality. Yes, those who know how to appreciate the ideas we defend, and which are so vehemently attacked by the whole clique of pharisees, hypocrites, mystics, Jesuits, and pietists, may be able to imagine that at some future period there may be a more ideal social edifice, which will have for its foundations human dig- nity and human equality. Does not antiquity furnish us with examples of such a partial transformation ? Whatever may be our ideas of the government of the world and of immortality, whether or not they undergo a change, society will not perish. And even if our ideas were false, if the enlightened part of the community cannot be deprived of its prejudices with- out doing some damage to society at large, science and empirical philosophy can only say: truth is above things divine and. human ; there exist no reasons strong enough to cause us to abandon it. La vdrit^, says Voltaire, a des droits impre- scriptibles ; comme il est toujours temps de la de- couvrir, il n'est jamais hors de saison de la defendre.