Chapter VI 



SOCIETAL EVOLUTION 



W. M. Wheeler 



WHEN as children we first escape from the "big, 

 buzzing, booming confusion," which to our infantile 

 consciousness represents the surrounding world, 

 we distinguish an indefinite variety of different things. 

 Somewhat later we notice that our world also contains a 

 vast number of very similar objects. All this most of us 

 take for granted and never give it second thought during 

 the remainder of our hves. But if we happen to become 

 philosophers or scientists, this composition of reahty strikes 

 us as worthy of closer study, though we may entertain Kttle 

 hope of learning why our world should be made up of such 

 an extraordinary number of similars and dissimilars. As 

 our knowledge increases, we observe a pronounced tendency 

 in the numerous hke objects to form cohering aggregates, 

 and this tendency seems to be universal in its range from 

 the electrons that make the atoms, the atoms that make the 

 molecules, the molecules that make the masses, from sand 

 dunes and oceans to planets and suns, and their aggregates, 

 the constellations and nebulae. When we turn to living 

 things we find the tendency even more pronounced so that 

 the like entities cohere to form peculiar integrated systems 

 known as organisms which, on analysis, reveal themselves 

 as hierarchies of living entities. We find living molecules, 

 which are themselves systems of inorganic molecules, 

 atoms and electrons, organizing themselves to form 

 cells, cells to form persons, persons to form societies consisting 

 of single families and finally multi-familial or group societies 

 like the one into which we are born and in which we are 

 constrained to live till the end of our days. 



Yet closer observation has revealed the startling fact, 

 emphasized only within recent years, that the similar 

 entities when integrated or organized as wholes, i.e. as 

 systems or organisms, exhibit new and unpredictable 



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