THE PROBLEM OF UNIVERSAL TELEOLOGY 341 



ill time and which were repeated in an indefinite number of 

 exemplars. These classes were first pronounced "teleological" 

 in the descriptive sense of the word. The question then 

 arose, secondly, whether the combination of these states and 

 processes was such as to allow us to regard it as the 

 outcome of another primarily given physico-chemical com- 

 bination of a fixed character as we understand the com- 

 bination of processes in an artificial machine from the 

 combination of its parts or whether the specific combina- 

 tion of our objects was guaranteed in itself, i.e. immanent. 

 In short : " Is the teleology of our classes of the ' statical ' 

 or of the ' dynamical ' type ? " With regard to morpho- 

 genesis, inheritance, and acting, the dynamical kind of 

 teleology was found. Thirdly and finally, a special 

 category, " individuality," was discovered, upon which our 

 whole discussion had rested, unconsciously at the beginning, 

 consciously at the end. 



Consequences of the " Machine- Theory ' 



It is worth while to lay stress upon the fact that the cate- 

 gory of individuality would have also come on the scene if 

 the " machine-theory " of life had proved to be right, say for 

 the case of morphogenesis. Even in that case we should 

 have been forced to ask for an intrinsic reason of 

 " individual constructing," if not for this actual machine A 

 the egg yet for the other hypothetic machine B 

 which is supposed here to have been the basis of its 

 originating. And if this machine B again had proved 

 to be the effect of another machine C, we should 

 have asked for its reason of constructing, and so on 

 ad infinitum. Thus even on the machine theory of 



