PARTISAN REVIEW
natures of things, and does not assert that whatever exists is constituted
out of matter in motion. Physicalism is a methodological principle (sin–
gularly enough, one which is tacitly employed by Cornforth in his own
critique of atomistic sensationalism) for distinguishing statements that
possess an identifiable meaning from those that do not.
The erection of social utility into the criterion of truth is a first
step toward the suppression of free inquiry. Even so, the application of
this standard to positivistic philosophy yields results not congruous with
Cornforth's evaluation of that philosophy as a barren scholasticism.
It
has not occurred to him that Helmholtz, Mach, and Poincare, to cite
but three well-known names, have had a hand in producing the intel–
lectual climate which has made possible modern advances in physics.
In any event, the critiques of traditional scientific dogmas these men
supplied are based on some form of positivistic empiricism. Nor are the
consequences of Cornforth's rejection of positivistic criteria of meaning,
and of his adoption of the principles of dialectic materialism, uniformly
happy ones. In opposition to many positivists, he maintains that the
propositions of theology can be neither verified nor refuted by the
methods of science, but that they are nevertheless cognitively meaning–
ful. However, he also declares that science "rules out" as invalid im–
portant theological doctrines, in particular those concerning God and
immortality. Just how science can manage to do this, if its methods are
irrelevant for either confirming or disconfirming such doctrines, is a
neat trick which Cornforth does not trouble to explain. Again, fortified
by the laws of dialectic materialism, he affirms that even self-contradic–
tory formulations express interactions between fundamental opposites
in nature, and that an inconsistent philosophy is a representation of the
opposition between different aspects of reality. Accordingly, even if
antimetaphysical empiricism were as absurdly contradictory as Cornforth
makes it out to be, that philosophy cannot be an unmitigated falsehood
and must contain at least a measure of truth. Cornforth should beware;
he is in mortal danger of acknowledging an unpardonable heresy!
Ernest Nagel
the hans hofmann school of fine art
52 west 8th street
new york city
provincetown, mass.
june 14 - sept. 3
714
phone gramercy 7-3491
summer session
personelly conducted
by mr. hofmenn
