in the fear that men had of each other, and in the necessity of getting out of the misery of their primitive conditions, the chief cause of the origin of the State. Consequently, he was a fierce champion of the absolute power of kings, who had, according to his assertions, established peace among the wild stems, and thus allowed them to reach better conditions. On the other hand, he was a resolute enemy of the Church as a political power. He was the first to formulate an absolutely irreligious, materialistic conception of the Universe.
Holbach, Paul (1723–1789), French philosopher, one of the Encyclopaedists, who worked to establish a comprehensible system of knowledge of Nature and man upon a decidedly materialist basis. He did it in his principal work, "Système de la Nature." In his other works, "La Morale Universelle" and "La Politique Naturelle," he demonstrated that religion is not only useless, but is noxious for public morality and the happiness of the people.
Hutcheson, Francis (1694–1747), one of the chief representatives of the so-called Scotch philosophical school, which based its system of ethics on the principle of mutual sympathy. He endeavoured to prove that although we divide the motives by which our will is affected into egoistic and altruistic motives, nevertheless we approve only the latter and the actions inspired by them. This is the consequence of a "moral sense" with which Nature has endowed us. He developed these ideas in his works: "Enquiry into the Origins of Our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue," "Essay on Nature," and "Conduct of Passions and Affections."
Huxley, Thomas (1825–1895), English biologist, especially known for the gallant defence he made of Darwin's theory of evolution, at a time when Darwin was wildly assailed on all sides. Chief works: "Man's Place in Nature" (1863) and "Comparative Anatomy."
Inductive-Deductive Method—the method of modern science. It consists of the following:—(1) By observation and experiment we try to gain a knowledge of the phenomena which we propose to study. (2) We discuss the accumulated facts, and see if they do not lead (Latin, inducere) to some generalisation, or to some hypothesis which would link together the mass of facts (e.g., the hypothesis which Laplace made to explain the facts offered by the structure of our solar system; or Darwin's hypothesis of descent, by evolution from a common stock, of all the plants and animal species which exist or have existed in past geological periods on the earth). (3) Then we deduce conclusions from this hypothesis (we make deductions), leading us to foresee new facts; and these conclusions must prove to be correct, if the induction—the generalisation—was correct. (4) We compare our deductions with the facts already accumulated (§ 1). If necessary, new observations and experiments are made, in order to ascertain whether our hypothesis is in accordance with reality, and the hypothesis is either rejected or modified, until we find one which agrees with the present state of our knowledge. A hypothesis becomes a