3. THE PROBLEM OF MORPHOGENETIC LOCALISATION 



a. THE THEORY OF THE HARMONIOUS-EQUIPOTENTIAL SYSTEM 

 FIRST PROOF OF THE AUTONOMY OF LIFE 



We have come to the central point of the first part of 

 these lectures ; we shall try in this chapter to decide a 

 question which is to give life its place in Nature, and 

 biology its place in the system of sciences. One of the 

 foundation stones is to be laid upon which our future 

 philosophy of the organism will rest. 



The General Problem 



Our analytical theory of morphogenesis has been founded 

 upon three elementary concepts : the prospective potency, 

 the means, and the formative stimulus. Its principal object 

 has been to show that all morphogenesis may be resolved 

 into the three phenomena expressed by those concepts ; 

 in other terms, that morphogenesis may be proved to 

 consist simply and solely of what is expressed by them. 

 Have we indeed succeeded in attaining this object ? Has 

 nothing been left out ? Is it really possible to explain 

 every morphogenetic event, at least in the most general 

 way, by the aid of the terms potency, means, and stimulus ? 



All of these questions are apt to lead us to further 



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