ABSTRACT
Classical antiquity gave rise to two explanations of natural phenomena, each splendid in its own way: that of Democritus and that of Aristotle. As will be remembered, Democritus attempted to explain all phenomena in existence, both physical and psychical, by the assumption that things were composed of a mass of particles, varying in size, shape, and movement, whose mutual interrelation caused all that is and all that happens, all, in fact, that is observable or conceivable, The weakness of this theory lay in the fact that it gave no explanation of the obedience to law which experience has proved beyond any doubt to exist in all that happens in nature. It was therefore supplanted by Aristotle's cosmic explanation, which maintained just this universal obedience to law, but based it upon the assumption of a divine intelligence which governs and gives form to what is in itself formless matter, controlling the latter in various degrees — less in inanimate nature, more in the animate, and most in the celestial spheres which hold sway over the imperfect earth. In animate nature this force appears as soul, vital spirit, which creates higher forms of existence the more it overcomes matter. This cosmic theory, which, owing to its logically consistent formulation, is unique in its greatness, has been characterized as dynamic and vitalistic in contrast to materialistic atomism. It has with greater reason been called aesthetic, since Aristotle really looked upon natural phenomena from the point of view of an artist who gives form to matter; it has even been called teleological, because according to it everything in existence has a purpose which is determined by the governing intelligence. In this latter characteristic we really find that quality in the Aristotelean thought-system which has proved most fateful both for that system and for man's conception of life in general. The divine intelligence which Aristotle invented in order to make possible the assumption of law-bound existence on purely speculative grounds became a welcome ally to the pious aims of late antiquity and still more so to the mediaeval Church. One found indications of similarity between it and the "divine power" of the old myths of creation, and thus received an idea of the course of the world, apparently scientific, but actually based upon legends from the childhood of man.
