158 SCIENCE AND PHILOSOPHY OF THE ORGANISM 



DIFFERENT FORMS OF THE PRINCIPLE OF CAUSALITY 



A complete system of natural ontology, whilst dealing 

 with causality, would have to develop more specified 

 principles regarding it. Some such principles have indeed 

 been found by naturalists, but, strange to say, they are 

 generally regarded nowadays as being of an empirical and 

 inductive nature, while in reality they are quite otherwise. 

 The principle of " phases " and the principle of the " least 

 action ' are cases in point. We shall not make use of 

 these principles in our discussion ; but we shall apply and 

 therefore shall insist more fully upon the analysis of two 

 specific aprioristic causal principles which have played a 

 great role in the history of inorganic sciences : I refer to 

 the two so-called " principles of energy." 



It seems to me that these principles, generally spoken of 

 as the " conservation of energy ' and the " augmentation of 

 entropy," have their logical sources in the different aspects 

 which causality offers to a thorough analysis. 



The " cause " of an effect in spatial nature is that change 

 in spatial nature which is invariably and " necessarily ' 

 followed by the effect. We now may consider this 

 relation of " causality " in a more general and more specified 

 manner. 



We first imagine the totality of a " system," that is, 

 a limited part of space including all the natural realities 

 embraced in it. We study the states of the system as a 

 whole at the different moments ^ and 2 > all causal relation 

 between it and its surroundings being excluded. Then 

 we assure ourselves that the causality of the system with 



