THE PROBLEM OF UNIVERSAL TELEOLOGY 343 



as long as there is no corpse ; the latter are inorganic 

 constellations or machines, and in this sense correspond 

 to a corpse only. " Die Tatigkeit ist in ihr Produkt 

 iibergegangen," as Hegel says activity has gone over into 

 its product. But this difference does not come into account 

 in our present considerations. We know from our previous 

 discussion that it is not a fundamental difference. 



General Plan of what Follows 



After these preparations let us set to work. Let us try 

 to find out in which departments of the whole of nature 

 real individualising processes may occur or may have 

 occurred at least hypothetically ; in which fields the 

 concept of individual unity is justifiable. 



We know that we should be able to find what we are 

 searching for whenever there were such combinations or 

 sequences of states or events as are " teleological," at least 

 in our well-defined descriptive meaning of this word. 1 In 

 this case, and in this case only, 2 there at least may be more 

 than aggregates or sums, whilst otherwise nature, except in 



1 By these words we most decidedly exclude from "teleology" everything 

 that does not relate to combinations or sequences as such. We therefore 

 cannot agree with those who have regarded certain forms of the most 

 fundamental mechanical principles under a "teleological" aspect. In the 

 " principle of least action " there is nothing teleological ; the principle 

 is only another expression of the principle of causality with regard to 

 Euclidean space. See my Natwrbegriffe, pp. 47 and 97 ; also Petzoldt, 

 Maxima, Minima uncl Oeconomie, 1891. Something similar is true with 

 regard to the principles that bear the names of Leuz and Le Chatelier, in 

 electricity and physical chemistry. 



2 With reference to what has been called " Gestaltqualitaten " (Ehrenfela) 

 or "fundierte Inhalte " (Meinong) by modern psychologists, we may say that 

 all cases of individuality organic or inorganic would be subsumed under 

 these concepts which, by the way, are purely psychological but not 

 conversely. 



