A biologist's view of whitehead's philosophy 



knowledge of the world by die simultaneous investigation of all the 

 levels of complexity and organisation. Only in this way can we 

 hope to understand how one is connected with the others. Only by 

 understanding how one is connected with the others can we hope to 

 see the meaningful integration of the evolving world in which organi- 

 sation has been achieving its ever new triumphs. 



The second question is one which has deeply concerned the present 

 writer in his aim to unify biochemistry and morphology, namely 

 the ancient problem of Form and Matter. Though not frequently 

 discussed by Whitehead, it is fundamental for die biologist. The 

 setting of iJLop(f>r] and ethos against vXi] by Aristode has had an 

 incalculably great influence on the historical development of biology. 

 In the characteristic Greek art, sculpture, the form was certainly 

 much more relevant to human interests dian the marble or the bronze 

 manifesting it. So for many centuries biologists devoted themselves 

 to the study of animal form without much consideration of the matter 

 with which it is indissolubly connected. It is not surprising that the 

 numerous devils of vitalism found a congenial abode in the empty 

 mansions of form thus suitably swept and garnished. The morpho- 

 logical tradition (originating perhaps from die idea of change as the 

 pri\ ation of one form and die donation of another) was to think of 

 matter far too simply, ignoring what we now know to be the vast 

 complexity of chemical structures, and the unbroken line of sizes 

 reaching from the sub-atomic levels to the particles of virus molecule 

 size. Only in the light of the conception of organic levels can the 

 saccular gulf between morphology and chemistry be bridged. 



It is true that Aristode held that there could be form without matter, 

 though no matter without form. But according to him, die only 

 entities which possessed form without matter, were the divine prime 

 mover, the intelligent demiurges diat moved the spheres, and perhaps 

 die rational soul of man. Some of diese are factors in which experi- 

 mental science has never been very much interested. On the other 

 hand, he maintained that there could be no matter without form, 

 for however pure the matter was (even the chaotic primal menstrual 

 matter which was the raw material of the embryo), it was always 

 composed of the elements, i.e. always either hot or cold, wet or dry, 

 and hence had a minimum of form. In its primitive way, this mirrors 

 die position of modem science. Form is not the perquisite of the 

 morphologist. It exists as the essential characteristic of the whole 

 realm of organic chemistry, and cannot be excluded either from 



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