The Sexes in Science and History
An Inquiry into the Dogma of Woman's Inferiority to Man
9781465631381
118 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
Sex is not only the basic fact underlying physical life but it is also the fundamental principle involved in the origin and development of religion. Throughout the history of mankind, the God-idea has ever been, male or female, according to the relative importance of the two sex principles in human affairs. Scientists declare that they are now able to trace the development of the two diverging lines of sex-demarcation from the time of their separation, or from the time when these principles were confined within one and the same individual. In order to understand the origin of sex, it becomes necessary to recall, briefly, the theory of the development of life on the earth as set forth by the savants. As science deals only with matter, a mechanical theory of the universe is inevitable. As science is wholly materialistic, it is perfectly consistent in its declaration that the senses and the intellect constitute the only means whereby truth may be discovered. Modern philosophy, on the other hand, which deals less with matter itself than with the causes which underlie the development of matter, affirms that a character has been developed in human beings which in its capacity to discern truth, far transcends the intellect. That character is intuition. But as we are dealing only with scientific observations, philosophical speculations do not here concern us. The fundamental idea, which must necessarily lie at the bottom of all natural theories of development, is that of a gradual development of all (even the most perfect) organisms out of a single, or out of a very few, quite simple, and quite imperfect original beings, which came into existence, not by supernatural creation, but by spontaneous generation. According to the theory of evolution as elaborated by scientists, the history of man begins with small animated particles, or Monera, which appeared in the primeval sea. These marine specks were albuminous compounds of carbon, generated by the sun’s heat, which made their appearance as soon as the mists which enveloped the earth were sufficiently cleared away to permit the rays of the sun to penetrate them and reach the surface of the globe. Concerning the origin of the principle of life which these particles contained, or regarding the development of organic bodies from inorganic substances, the more timid among naturalists declare that in the present state of human knowledge it is impossible to know anything, while others of them, more bold, or more confident of the latent powers of the human intellect, after having elaborated a natural or mechanical explanation for the development of all organic forms, are not disposed to accept a supernatural theory for the beginning of life. For example, since organic structures represent the development of matter according to laws governing the chemical, molecular, and physical forces inherent in it, it is believed that the gulf separating organic and inorganic substances is not so difficult to span as has hitherto been supposed. Among those who hold this view may be ranked the celebrated naturalist, Ernst Haeckel.
