butes of the brain processes and the qualitative characteristics of the mental life.[1] By his own admissions, too, the relation cannot be a ‘logical’ one. For if that were its nature, the relation would hold in both directions, and we would not be limited to ‘deduction’ of the mental from the material, but would likewise be able to reconstruct the brain-processes from our knowledge of mind.
As further evidence that Avenarius’ distinction between his own position and that of parallelism is a distinction without a difference, I may quote the passage in the Bemerkungen,[2] in which he speaks of subjective experience as “Etwas, das Eines mit dem vorgefundenen Bewegten ist, das unauflöslich mit ihm verbunden ist, wie Form und Stoff, und das auch selbst nie ohne Form und nie ohne Inhalt ist und doch immer in anderen Formen und mit anderen Inhalten und zugleich immer in Uebereinstimmung mit dem Gesetz der Erhaltung der Energie”. Though the position expressed in this passage may appear Spinozistic (and Avenarius was of course greatly influenced by Spinoza), it must be borne in mind that his philosophy allows of no metaphysical distinction between appearance and reality, and therefore necessarily remains at the parallelist point of view which Spinoza transcends. In so far as Avenarius’ philosophy deserts the parallelist position it must tend towards materialism. A parallelism of the physical and the psychical, conceived as distinct existences and as standing in functional relation, is the final outcome of his metaphysical speculations. That monistic conception of experience which he unfolds in the Menschliche Weltbegriff, from which he criticises subjective idealism, and upon which he professes to reestablish a scientific realism, he has failed to reconcile with the naturalistic philosophy of his earlier Kritik.
The interest and value of the Menschliche Weltbegriff is, however, by no means lessened when we thus recognise its sturdy idealism as being spoken out of the mouth of its convinced opponent. The bankruptcy of materialism is dramatically represented in its whole-hearted welcome of the old gods disguised under strange names. Idealism has found a prophet in the enemy’s camp. Further confirmation of this interpretation of Avenarius’ philosophy will be gained in the next article from an examination of his theory of the introjectionist argument.
(To be concluded.)
