TIME IN ART AND SCIENCE
323
The real change does not occur, however, before the replace–
ment of the mechanistic interpretation of time by an organismic in–
terpretation, that is to say, the emergence of history as a science in
the modern sense and the origin of Romanticism as the modern spiri–
tual revolution par excellence. Organic life, as opposed to mechanical
processes, is most unmistakably characterized by its spontaneity, ib
natural growth, the interdependence of its various manifestations, the
indivisible unity and the irreversibility of its phases. The real form
of existence of an organism is not that of
being
but of
becoming,
not a state but a disposition, not an actuality but a potentiality. His–
torical beings-nations, races, corporations, cultural institutions-are,
since the end of the eighteenth century, described in this sense as
living, organically and spontaneously developing individuals with their
own life history, that is to say, an existence entirely determined
from within.
The essence of the organismic philosophy of history consists in
the doctrine that the cultural inheritance of a nation is not the result
of a deliberate
making
but of a spontaneous
growth.
Social life, with
its institutions, traditions, and conventions, is, according to this phi–
losophy, a plantlike development, and not a rationally contrived and
arbitrarily directed experiment. What the organismic theories of his–
tory really strive to show is that cultural forms and social institutions
are by no means the achievements of inventive and unrestrained
minds, of rootless and faithless individuals, but rather the slowly, un–
intentionally, and to some extent unconsciously achieved result of the
work of many generations. The most valuable and most endur:ng
part of this work is anonymous.
The social origin and political background of this philosophy is
clearly visible. There are, on the whole, three events which determine
the emergence of the organismic conception of time:
1.
The
Industrial
R evolution
and the importance given to the element of time in tech–
nology. With the rationalization of industrial production and the full
exploitation of the .available resources, above all labor, time assumes
an entirely new significance; it becomes a matter of special value and
a particular problem. 2. The emergence of
biology
as one of the
sciences with a key position in the organization of the new world–
view. With biology, the structure of organism and the problem of
life move to the center of interest and produce a new approach to
the phenomenon of time, which is now considered the very element
