Tertium Organum

parts in the required proportions and under the required physical conditions. 
Modern physics presumes that at the basis of all physical phenomena lie 
electro-magnetic phenomena. 
But physical phenomena do not pass into 
phenomena of life.
By no combination of physical conditions can science 
create life, just as by chemical synthesis it cannot create living matter, 
protoplasm. We can tell what amount of coal is needed to obtain the amount 
of heat necessary to transform a given quantity of ice into water. But we 
cannot tell what amount of coal is required to create the life energy by the aid 
of which one living cell forms another living cell. In the same way physical, 
chemical and mechanical phenomena cannot, by themselves, produce 
psychological phenomena. Were it otherwise, 
a rotating wheel,
by expending
a certain amount of energy, or in the course of a certain period of time, would 
generate an idea.
Yet we know quite well that a wheel may go on rotating for 
millions of years, but no 
idea 
will result from it. We see therefore that 
phenomena of motion are fundamentally different from the phenomena of life 
and consciousness. 
Phenomena of life pass into other phenomena of life, multiply in them 
infinitely and 
transform themselves into physical phenomena, 
producing a
whole series of mechanical and chemical combinations. The phenomena of 
life manifest themselves to us in physical phenomena and in the presence of 
such phenomena. 
Psychological phenomena are experienced directly and, having enormous 
potential force, pass into physical phenomena and into manifestations of life. 
We know that at the basis of our procreative force lies 
desire,
i.e. a 
psychological state or a phenomenon of consciousness. 
Desire
has a 
tremendous potential force. A whole people 

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may be produced by the combined desire of a man and a woman. At the basis of the 
active, constructive, creative force of man, capable of altering the course of rivers, 
joining oceans, carving mountains, lies desire, i.e. again a psychological state or a 
phenomenon of consciousness. Thus psychological phenomena possess a still greater 
combining power in relation to physical phenomena than do the phenomena of life. 
Positivist philosophy asserts that phenomena of life and psychological phenomena 
arise from one cause 
which lies within the sphere of physical studies. 
This cause is 
called by different names at different times, but is presumed to be identical with 
physical energy in general. 
Seriously analysing this assertion, it is impossible to avoid seeing that it is 
completely arbitrary and unfounded. Within the scope of our being and observation, 
physical phenomena never produce phenomena of life and consciousness. Therefore we 
are 
more
justified in assuming that phenomena of life and phenomena of consciousness 
contain something which is absent in physical phenomena. 
Further, physical, biological and psychological phenomena cannot be 
measured by the 
same measure. 
Or, to be more exact, phenomena of life and phenomena of 
consciousness cannot be measured by us at all. And it is only the first, i.e. the physical 
phenomena, that we can assume to be measurable, though even that is very problematic. 
At any rate we know without doubt that neither phenomena of life nor psychological 
phenomena can be expressed by us in the formulae of physical phenomena; and, 
generally speaking, we have for them no formulae at all. 
If we wish to understand more clearly the mutual relationship of these different 
orders of phenomena, we must examine in greater detail the laws of their transition one 
into another. 
First of all we should consider the physical phenomena and make a detailed study of 
all the conditions and characteristics of their transition one into another. 
In an article on Wundt