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GENERAL INTRODUCTION
15
complex phenomena to one of them as their substance and
law, on the basis of superficial and unequally emphasized
similarities, a gradual differentiation leads to the recognition
of the primary forces which interact between their
elements. That is the road from philosophy to exact science
along a series of intermediate stations. The cosmic
appearances are so manifold, complex, and interwoven
that a first orientation cannot occur otherwise than by
postulating an often observed fact as the center and source
of the world and by tracing the other phenomena back to
it. Although this maybepossible only with many strains and
breakings, it will none the less provide a first guiding line.
But metaphysics has made the mistake of considering
this first unitary synthesis of the appearance of things as
their last source. It has projected behind the actuality
the distance which separates the actuality from the superficial
appearance, and has considered the latter as the
absolute source of the former, instead of a first approach
toward it. The thought movement has tended to become
rigid at the beginning of its journey, and this has placed
great obstacles in the way of a further differentiation and
a better knowledge of the actuality. But it has none the
less produced a unification of and a mastery over the manifoldness
of appearances which is not without value just
because it is merely the beginning and not the end. The
right to a philosophic treatment remains therefore unchallenged
until the problems are finally solved within the
field of exact science. And this historical development of
our knowledge of the totality of the world is similar to the
development of our knowledge of special fields. The metaphysics
of the cosmos continues in a metaphysics of part
of the cosmos. But there also it has a value only as a first
anticipation, and must be followed by an exact inquiry.!
1 Ibid., pp. 93-04.
