352 SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE ORGANISM 



about a harmony or a truly teleological and individual 

 constellation either in the general distribution of kinds of 

 matter or in planetary or sidereal arrangements. But 

 there are some approximations at least to a general statical 

 harmonious teleologv with regard to living beings and 



o>/ o o o 



man. 



e. CONTINGENCY AND TELEOLOGY 



The Concept of Contingency 



To deny inorganic teleology in any form would 

 ultimately be the same as to admit contingency as the ex- 

 clusive feature of inorganic specificity of constellation. 

 The term " contingency ' has two different meanings in 

 common use. With regard to necessity, philosophy must 

 maintain that nothing happens in nature that is not 

 univocally determined, and that therefore nothing is 

 " contingent " ; but as to events at this very point in space 

 and at this very moment of time, philosophy may speak of 

 the contingency of their happening here and now, whenever 

 it is not possible to discover anything like a wholeness or 

 a plan to which their local and temporal appearance is 

 due. Contingency in this sense is the same as non- 

 teleology, 1 whilst contingency in the other meaning is in- 

 admissible to critical philosophy altogether. 2 



If now we wish to express our general result with 

 regard to the problem of any non-biological teleology or 



1 It is worth noticing that the term "contingency" only acquires a clear 

 meaning when opposed to teleology ; it is a negation. But this proves that 

 teleology (or rather, individuality) is a category. 



2 A fuller discussion of the problem would belong to general philosophy. 

 Comp. also page 304 and page 345, note. 



