teacher;[1] at the same time there are differences, which are largely referable to Černyševskii's lack of criticism. But the question of which we are chiefly concerned is how we are to classify Černyševskii from the epistemological and metaphysical outlook.
Černyševskii speaks of himself as a materialist, and, by friends and foes alike, his doctrines are termed materialistic. He writes: "Philosophy sees in man what medicine, physiology, and chemistry see in him. These sciences prove that in man no dualism is discoverable; but philosophy adds that if man had a second nature in addition to his real [material] nature, the second nature would necessarily manifest itself in some way. But since no such second nature displays itself, since all human conduct and all human manifestations conform solely to his real [material] nature, it follows that he has no second nature." I select this passage because Černyševskii's materialism and his philosophical method are thereby presented in a nutshell. Černyševskii is a materialist sans phrase, materialist after the manner of Herzen and Bakunin, and therefore preeminently one who denies the existence of an immortal soul. Černyševskii recognises the distinction between the so-called material and the moral[2] phenomena in man, but contends that the difference between these phenomena does not conflict with the unity of nature. Černyševskii believes that this unity of the physiological and the psychological can be illustrated and explained by the analogy with the three states of aggregation of water. "In these three states, one and the same quality is manifested in a threefold series of quite distinct phenomena, so that a single quality assumes the form of three distinct qualities; it is distinguished as three qualities simply in accordance with differences in quantitative manifestation; a quantitative difference is transformed into a qualitative difference." Here we see once more that Černyševskii's materialism is what may be termed "common sense" materialism. He stresses always the single nature of man. Every activity of the one and undivided human being is the activity, either of the entire organism
- ↑ Take, for example, the well-known saying, Man is what he eats. In Černyševskii this runs: "Nutrition and sensation are so intimately associated, that the character of one determines the character of the other."
- ↑ Černyševskii here follows the French terminology, "moral" meaning "mental" or "spiritual." This terminology has important bearings upon his ethical ideas.
