The Philosophical Review/Volume 1/Summary: Seeland - Ueber die Einseitigkeit der herrschenden Krafttheorie I
It is the constant progress in the organic, and especially in the psychical sphere, which has led the author to doubt the constancy of the sum of energy in the universe as a whole. His own thesis is that "the sum of the real forces, i.e. those which are understood in the law of the conservation of energy, are not constant, but steadily increasing in the course of the world's history. The thing, however, which furnishes this supply is an unknown and indefinite existence, which we cannot indeed name nothing, but yet we are not in a position to say anything further of it."
In the lives of plants, animals, and men we constantly see new properties and relations arise, and those already existing becoming stronger, without being able to explain these through any existing sum of forces. Living organisms do not simply react like machines upon one invariable stimulus, but respond purposively to the most varied forms of excitement. The organisms, too, become modified, and when these modifications become permanent as a result of them, a higher stage of life is made possible. Nothing is more common than to speak of 'natural forces' and to forget that the bases of these forces are themselves indefinite and unknown. We constantly see organic beings, particularly men, advance through an indefinite number of stages and develop from their original nature new properties and forces. But this original nature is only an indefinite somewhat out of which the forces must be produced, and what is produced is generally higher and more complex than the stimulus.
The development of memory and the other intellectual powers cannot be supposed to take place at the expense of other vital forces; for if the development has been harmonious, if the body has not been neglected or misused, the individual is physically stronger than before. Further, contact with persons or things calls forth new dispositions and feelings, and deepens those which already exist; i.e. produces new psychical forces without necessitating any loss. Stimuli of a negative character, like cold, hunger, pain, have a similar effect. Painful psychical experiences are most important for the genesis of positive moral qualities. All advance is the result of strain, of suffering, of conflict. If we ask for the source of this additional spiritual force, the question cannot be answered from the standpoint of the prevailing theory of energy.