THE PURPOSES OF BEHAVIOUR 137 



little more than the drop of fluid in which it is being cultivated 

 — on the other hand, the universe of an astronomer is all that he 

 can observe. 



(2) Therefore the universe of every organism is more or less 

 different from that of any other one, for even when we consider 

 two organisms of the same category, or race, the universe of each 

 is not the same as that of the other merely because it includes the 

 other. B is part of the universe of A but A is not in A's universe 

 but in B's. 



(3) Every organism has a unique point of view, for all other 

 things are external to it. It is privileged in a sense, being, from 

 its own point of view, the centre of its universe. As it moves 

 forward its universe opens out in front and contracts behind. 

 Its direction of motion is from itself as origin and it makes its 

 own " frame of reference." On the modern theory of relativity 

 all scientific measurements of space and time belong to, and have 

 strict validity only for the observer that makes them and no other 

 observer making measurements of the same things can get 

 absolutely identical results. It is necessary to make certain 

 conventional " reductions " of the measurements in order that 

 they may be valid for the two observers. It is true that such 

 corrections, or reductions, may be very minute ones, but that is 

 because man's power over the things in his universe is relatively 

 very small. 



(4) The acquired experience of every organism is its own and 

 is unique. Its memory is its own. No other organism can, 

 except by " sympathy " and " intuition," share in the personal 

 experience of any other one. 



(5) The interests of an organism are its own and cannot be 

 shared by any other one. If it is a gregarious animal to that 

 extent it inhibits purely personal urges. When it displays, say, 

 the immensely powerful urge of maternal solicitude for the 

 offspring it is only extending its interests, for it is '* its own " 

 offspring for which it may inhibit the urge of individual self- 

 preservation, and not that of other animals. 



49. ON ORGANIC PURPOSE 

 We have, in ourselves, the most immediate and certain feeling 

 and knowledge of purpose. The functioning body needs to 



