Chapter 12 Chapter Twelve

Since the discovery and verification of the Copernican system, just admitting that the sun does not rotate, but the fact that the earth rotates is enough to destroy all the cosmology of the ancients.If this system is refuted, the old concept of celestial bodies' movement can be maintained, but it seems impossible to continue to study Ptolemy's theory of heavenly motion without overthrowing it.However, after the Copernican system was discovered, Ptolemy's theory of heavenly motion was still studied for a long time. -------- ① Ptolemy was an ancient Greek scholar, astronomer and geographer who founded the theory of heavenly movement.

Ever since it was declared and proved that birth and crime rates obey mathematical laws, that certain geographical, political and economic conditions determine this or that form of administration, that certain relations of population and land cause the migration of peoples—thereafter, the history upon which history is built The foundation was literally destroyed. By overturning these new laws, the old view of history can be maintained; but without overthrowing them, it seems impossible to study historical events as the product of the free will of men.For if a certain form of government, or a movement of a people, is brought about by some geographical, racial, or economic condition, it seems to us that the free will of those who establish a form of government or a movement of a people cannot considered the cause.

Meanwhile, previous history and the laws of statistics, geography, political economy, comparative linguistics, and geology, which completely violated its principles, continued to be studied. There has been a long and tenacious struggle in natural philosophy between old and new views.Theology defends old ideas and condemns new ones for destroying God's revelation.But when truth triumphs, theology is equally firmly established on a new foundation. At present, the old and new historical views are also engaged in a long and tenacious struggle, and theology also defends the old views and accuses the new views of destroying God's revelation.

In both cases, the struggle arouses strong emotions from two sides and extinguishes the truth.On the one hand, fear and regret for the whole edifice erected through the centuries; on the other, a burning passion for its destruction. In the eyes of those who opposed the truth of the emerging natural philosophy, if they admitted it, they would destroy their faith in God, in the creation of the universe, and in the miracle of Joshua son of Nun.To those who defended the laws of Copernicus and Newton, it seemed to Voltaire, for example, that the laws of astronomy had destroyed religion, so he used the law of gravitation as an instrument against religion.

-------- ①See "The Bible·Old Testament·Joshua". ②Voltaire (1694～1778), French materialist philosopher. As is now the case, it seems that the mere acknowledgment of the law of necessity destroys the notions of the soul, of good and evil, and of all the state and ecclesiastical institutions upon which they are founded. Like Voltaire, the defenders of the law of necessity now use it as a tool against religion, as Voltaire did; The foundation upon which to build, and even firmly lay that foundation. The current history problem is the same as the astronomy problem in the past. The difference in various viewpoints lies in the recognition or non-recognition of an absolute unit as the scale of visible phenomena.In astronomy, it is the immobility of the earth; in history, it is the individual independence—free will.

Just as in astronomy the difficulty in admitting that the earth moves lies in denying the immediate sense that the earth does not move and the planets move, so in history the difficulty in admitting that individuals are subject to the laws of space, time, and causality consists in denying our individual independence direct feeling.However, the new view of astronomy shows: "It is true that we cannot perceive the motion of the earth, but if we assume that it does not move, we will draw ridiculous conclusions; We have arrived at laws." The new view of history also shows this: "It is true that we do not feel our dependence, but if we assume that we have free will, we draw absurd conclusions. There is a dependence on the external world, on time, on causality, and we arrive at laws."

In the first case, deny the consciousness of the earth at rest in space, and admit that we do not feel its motion; sex.