THE PROBLEM OF UNIVERSAL TELEOLOGY 349 



teleology relating to the sequence of one state of politics or 

 economy upon another, and apart from phylogeny, there 

 seems to me to be a certain sound foundation in the concept 

 of the general harmony between organic and inorganic nature, 

 a something which seems to show that nature is nature for a 

 certain purpose. But I confess at the same time that I am 

 absolutely unable to consider this purpose in any other than 

 a purely anthropomorphic manner. 



Let us now try to examine in a systematic way to what 

 classes of inorganic or organic constellations any kind of 

 teleological harmony possibly might relate. Of course, any 

 such harmony would be merely statical in the first place, i.e. 

 a given teleological arrangement and no more. But it 

 would be much if even that could be proved. 



As to the different types of matter and forces, physics 

 and chemistry try to understand atoms, molecules, and 

 crystals as mere states of equilibrium of one elemental 

 material. The possible forms of equilibrium would be 

 guaranteed by the nature of space from such a point of view. 

 But what about the specific distribution and relative frequency 

 of the different classes of inorganic materiality ? These, of 

 course, are the consequences of a former specific distribution, 

 which in turn is the consequence of a still earlier one. Is 

 there anything in any of these distributions that is of the 

 character of a teleological unity ? The only way by which 

 this hypothetic unity might possibly be recognised as such 

 would be the demonstration that it has some relation of 

 purposefulness with regard to organic beings. That certainly 

 sounds very " anthropomorphic," but we must never forget 

 that in no other manner would it be possible here to get 

 even the mere starting-point for a " supra-biological ' or 



