Haeckel  speaks  somewhat  slightingly  of  "museum  zoolog-
ists and  herbarium  botanists,"  because  they  merely  classify
animals  and  plants  according  to  genera  and  species.    The


408  THE  POSITIVE  OUTCOME  OF   PHILOSOPHY

modern  zoologists  and  botanists  do  not  simply  consider
the  multiplicity  of  animals  and  plants  which  exist  simul-
taneously, but  also  the  chronological  order  of  the  changes
and  transformations,  and  in  this  way  they  have  gained
much  more  of  a  life-picture  of  the  zoological  and  botanical
world,  a  picture  not  alone  of  its  being,  but  also  of  its
growing,  of  arising  and  declining.  Undoubtedly  the
knowledge  of  the  museum  zoologists  and  herbarium  bot-
anists was  meager,  narrow,  mechanical,  and  modern
science  offers  a  far  better  portrait  of  truth  and  life.  Still
this  is  no  reason  for  overestimating  the  value  of  analysis
by  cause  and  effect.  This  method  supplements  the  cate-
gory of  genus  and  species.  It  assists  in  enlightening,  it
helps  in  the  process  of  thought,  but  it  does  not  render
other  forms  of  thought  superfluous.
It  is  essential  for  the  theory  of  understanding,  to  rec-
ognize the  special  forms  of  thought  of  old  and  new  times
as  peculiarities  which  have  a  common  nature.  This  com-
mon nature  of  the  process  of  thought,  understanding,  en-
lightenment, is  a  part  of  the  universal  world  process,  and
not  greatly  different  from  it.
The  conception  of  a  cause  partly  explains  the  phe-
nomena of  the  universe;  but  so  docs  the  conception  of  a
purpose  and  of  a  species,  in  fact,  so  do  all  conceptions.
In  the  universe  all  parts  are  causes,  all  of  them  caused,
produced,  created,  and  yet  there  is  no  creator,  no  pro-
ducer, no  cause.  The  general  produces  the  special,  and
the  latter  in  turn  produces  bj  reaction  the  general.
