It is well known that all religions are anthropomorphical; but are not the natural philosophy of to-day, the psychology of to-day, and all philosophy of to-day, anthropomorphical also? We speak of the “inertia” of matter, the “resistance” of atoms, the “action” and “re-action” of forces, the “kindness” and “wisdom” of nature, of the attention which is “directed” to this or that, of the will which “leads” us and is the “impulse” of our actions—sensation, feeling, ideation, and thought—all is made anthropomorphic and is treated from an animistic point of view, even by the so-called empiricists.
The hidden ground for this is to be found in the relinquishment of the natural concept of the universe, in the division of the one universe into an inner and an outer world, in the division of the one course of events into a physical and a psychical, and in the need of connecting and uniting what has been artificially separated, the need of finding a mediator between the universe of “Being” and that of “Thought”.
Avenarius, on the contrary, has succeeded in once more presenting a view of the universe as one, which corresponds to theoretical as well as to practical needs. He comprehends all our action and thought as E-values, which depend immediately upon the change-processes in system C, and mediately upon the change-processes in the component parts of the environment, of R-values.
If, e.g., I have given to me for investigation the statement of an individual, “I have the perception blue,” I may approach my task both from the side of the designation and from the side of that which is designated.
If I approach the task from the latter side I find nothing but R-values, first, the external change-process, the vibrations of aether, second, the inner change-process, the brain-process. This mode of regarding what takes place is called the absolute method. Both processes are measurable events, and have a chemical or physical significance; but they differ in that the external change-process has only this chemico-physical significance, while the inner change-process has this and yet another significance, the meaning, the sense or content.
In referring to the inner change-process, I have turned from the absolute point of view to another which is called the relative, because the relation between the individual and the objects is now discriminated. In this relative point of view I find nothing but E-values, viz., in this case I do not mean by “tree” a part of my environment, nor by “ blue “ the vibrations of aether, nor by “perception” the brain-process, but the meaning which the word “tree,” “blue,”
