ABSTRACT
In our consideration of the question of the human will, the question whether it is free, or determined by certain causes, like everything else in the world, we arrived at the conclusion that we must adopt the point of view of determinism. We found that the will of man is not divine in character, that it depends on external causes and on the conditions of the human organism. This brought us face to face with the most important question that has troubled the human mind for thousands of years—the question as to the relation between matter and mind, which in simple parlance is often spoken of as the relation between “soul” and “body”. In general, we distinguish between two kinds of phenomena. Phenomena of the one kind have extension, occupy space, are observed through our external senses: we may see them, hear them, feel them, taste them, etc.; such we call material phenomena. Others have no place in space and cannot be felt or seen. Such, for example, are the human mind, or will, or feeling. But no one can doubt their existence. The philosopher Descartes considered just this circumstance to be the proof of man's existence; Descartes said: “Cogito, ergo sum”;—I think, therefore I am. Yet, man's thought cannot be felt or smelt; it has no color and cannot be directly measured in yards or meters. Such phenomena are called psychical; in simple language, “spiritual”. We have now to consider the question of the relation between these two kinds of phenomena. Is the mind “the beginning of all things”, or is it matter? Which comes first; which is the basis; does matter produce mind, or does mind produce matter? What is the relation between the two? This question involves the fundamental conception of philosophy, on the answer to which depend the answers to many other questions in the domain of the social sciences.
