A biologist's view of whitehead's philosophy 



levels of organisation has arisen, and although this must to some 

 extent await the results of further experiments and observations, 

 there is quite enough knowledge already available to permit of a 

 good deal of theoretical thinking along these lines.^ 



One outstanding example, however, of the existence of contra- 

 dictions within the processes of developing Nature, is the ever- 

 recurring opposition between the old decaying factors and the new 

 arising factors at any given stage. The new tendencies win, but 

 they do not have it all their own way, and the eventual outcome 

 is a kind of synthesis. Lucretius was well aware of this strife between 

 the old and the new: — 



". . . omnia migrant, ^ 



omnia commutat natura et vertere cogit. 

 namque aliut putrescit et aevo debile languet, 

 porro aliut clarescit et e contemptibus exit." 



(All things depart; 

 For Nature changes all, and forces all 

 To transmutation; lo, this moulders down, 

 Aslack with weary eld, and that, again. 

 Prospers in glory, issuing from contempt.)^ 



So it has been said "Dialectics holds that internal contradictions 

 are inherent in all natural phenomena; the struggle between the old 

 and the new, that which is dying and that which is being born, con- 

 stitutes the internal content of the developmental process."^ To take 

 a concrete example, we might say that at certain stages of the world's 

 development, when complex molecules were first becoming stable, 

 and again when life was originating, the forces of repulsion constituted 

 the old, and the forces of aggregation constituted the new. The 

 forces of aggregation never win entirely, for in Nature though 

 victories may be decisive they are never total; the new synthesis at the 

 higher level embodies elements of both the warring sides at the 

 lower level. This is the secret of all high levels of organisation. But 

 the history of the world shows that the forces of aggregation do, on 

 the whole^ succeed in their tasks. 



^ Cf. the valuable book of A. I, Oparin, The Origin of Life (Moscow, 1936, 2nd edn. 

 enlarged 1941; Eng. tr. by S. Morgulis, New York, 1938). 



^ De Rerum Natura^ V, 830 ff. 



^ J. Stalin, Dialectical and Historical Materialism (Lawrence & Wishart, London, 

 1941, p. 9). 



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