On protoplasm; being an examination of Dr. James Hutchinson Stirling's criticism of Professor Huxley's views / [James Ross].

  • Ross, James, 1837-1892
Date:
1874
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On protoplasm; being an examination of Dr. James Hutchinson Stirling's criticism of Professor Huxley's views / [James Ross]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    called ^ materialism ^ has no sound philosophical basis. AVe shall now proceed to inquire how far Professor Huxley is justified in asserting that Dr. Stirling has misrepresented his views; and this will lead us into a detailed examination of the second edition of his pamphlet; in which we not only find the original statements repeated^ but a vindication of himself offered against Professor Huxley^s charge. The main object which led Dr. Stirling to publish his paper is best stated in his own words. I may now state/^ he says, “ without any more particular reference to the motives, whether general or special, which gave rise to it, that this essay of mine had but one thing to do,—to protest, namely, against the thoughtless extinction of certain essential dif- ferences ill a supposed common identify This being the main object of the essay, it is no wonder that the late Professor Ueberweg, who appears to have taken Professor Huxley^s views upon trust from Dr. Stirling, should say that the “ dialectical leading thought of the essay is “ the contention, namely, for the right of the logical Category of Difference, as against that of Identity, one-sidedly accentuated, as it seems, by Huxley.’’ “^My reply to this was,” proceeds Dr. Stirling, that he [Ueber- weg] had hit the mark—that I had been simply laughing all through, and holding up to the Category of Identity, the equally authentic Category * Contemforary Review, December, 1871, p. 35. t “ As Regards Protoplasm.” By James Hutchinson Stirling. Second edition, p. 1. Longmans, Green, & Co.