Intuitive Thinking As a Spiritual Path

186 Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path

Kant-Laplace primordial nebula. In order to picture
things in this way, however, the nature of the proto-am-
niotes, like the Kant-Laplace primordial nebula, would
have to be thought of differently than materialists think of
them. But that is irrelevant here.
Evolutionists could never claim that, without having
ever seen a reptile, they could derive the concept of rep-
tiles, with all of their features, from the concept of proto-
amniotes. Nor can the solar system be derived from the
concept of the Kant-Laplace primordial nebula, if that
concept is understood to be directly determined only by
the percept of the primordial nebula. In other words, if
they think consistently, evolutionists must assert that lat-
er phases of evolution really follow from earlier ones,
and that if we have theconcept of the imperfectand that
of the perfect given to us, we will be able to see the con-
nection. But on no account can evolutionists affirm that
the concept attained from the earlier is sufficient to de-
velop the concept of the later from it. It follows that,
while ethicists can certainly see the connection between
earlier and later moral concepts, not even a single new
moral idea can be drawn forth from earlier ones. As mor-
al beings, individuals produce their own content. For an
ethicist, this content is just as much a given as reptiles are
a given for the natural scientist. Reptiles developed from
proto-amniotes, but natural scientists cannot get the con-
cept of reptiles from out of the concept of proto-am-
niotes. Later moral ideas develop from earlier ones, but
ethicists cannot draw forth the ethical concepts of later
cultural epochs from those of earlier epochs.