32 BIOLOGY AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 



freedom of the voluntary act is not without 

 its counterpart in the more rigid aspects of 

 science. The answer to the question what two 

 digits will add together to make ten is not 

 single, but may be with equal truth any one 

 of several ; four and six is as correct an an- 

 swer as eight and two. But this kind of free- 

 dom is after all a formal freedom in a mental 

 operation rather than a freedom in a material 

 sequence in nature. 



From the standpoint of science the solution 

 of the problem of the voluntary act, like that 

 of memory, is to be sought in investigation 

 rather than speculation. But the scientific 

 study of this question must be undertaken 

 without prejudice. Physics and chemistry are 

 branches of science to which the biologist has 

 come to attribute a certain fundamental im- 

 portance in that organisms are believed to be 

 enormously complex physico-chemical combi- 

 nations. Day by day facts of organic nature 

 are yielding to this conception, and such prog- 

 ress is being made as to give rise in the 

 minds of many investigators to the opinion 

 that in the end all will thus be subdued. But 

 voluntary acts, if not incorrectly described, 

 seem to be fundamentally contrary to the gen- 



