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The following pages pretend neither to establish a system nor to be exhaustive. They are merely scattered, though necessarily connected, thoughts and observations, which, on account of the difficulty of mastering all the facts of empirical and natural science, may perhaps meet with some indulgence on the part of the scientific critic. If we may, at the outset, claim any credit, it is for our determination to speak the truth, regardless of the unavoidable consequences of our mode of viewing nature. Things cannot be represented different from what they are; and nothing appears to us more perverse than the efforts of respectable naturalists to introduce orthodoxy in the natural sciences. We do not boast of having produced anything new. Similar ideas have been promulgated at all times, partly by old Greek and Indian philosophers; but the necessary empirical basis furnished by modern science was then wanting. Hence the present views are, in respect to their clearness, a conquest of modern empirical science. The scholastic philosophy, still riding upon its high, though terribly emaciated horse, conceives that it has long ago done with such theories, and has consigned them, ticketed "materialism", "sensualism", "determinism", to the scientific lumber-room, or, as the phrase goes, has assigned them their "historical value". But this philosophy sinks daily in the estimation of the public, and loses its ground opposed to natural science, which gradually establishes the fact that macrocosmic and microcosmic existence obeys in its origin, life, and decay, mechanical laws inherent in the things themselves. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Force and energy. --- Matter. --- Materialism.

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At a time when German philosophy was dominated by idealism, German philosopher and physician Ludwig Büchner (1824-99) wrote Kraft und Stoff, an influential work advocating materialism, in 1855. It went through many editions and was widely read across the world. The controversy surrounding the book led to Büchner leaving his post at the University of Tübingen, but he went on to establish the German Freethinkers' League, the first German organisation for atheists. This book, first published in 1864, is a translation of the eighth edition, and is edited by J. Frederick Collingwood, who wanted to bring Büchner's work to an English audience. It contains translations of the prefaces from the first, third and fourth editions of Kraft und Stoff, and an introductory letter from Büchner which expresses his belief that Darwin's theory of evolution has given support to his materialist theory.

Force And Energy --- Matter --- Materialism --- Science --- Philosophy