PHILOSOPHICAL ASPECTS OF EVOLUTION 



their favor as it has done in the past, because they are con- 

 vinced that the position they defend is fundamentally the 

 same as the one they defended before. The vitalists point out 

 that all actual biological explanations start and have to start 

 with the given order of life. According to their point of view, 

 physico-chemical explanation in biology can, to a certain 

 extent, be compared with the way the working of a technical 

 product can be explained. A technical product, e.g., an engine, 

 works entirely in agreement with physical laws; given the 

 construction of the engine, the engine must work as it does. 

 That does not mean, however, that material forces explain 

 also the origin of an engine — it owes its origin to the creative 

 power of man. In the same way, the biological order could be 

 based entirely upon material forces, without the latter being 

 responsible for the origin of the biological order itself. 



It sounds convincing and yet we should not be convinced 

 too soon. For serious objections can still be raised against the 

 modern vitalistic position. First of all, it should be pointed out 

 that there is a great difference between a living organism and 

 a technical product. The latter is the result of an artificial 

 arrangement of material components. The parts of an engine 

 are given a form which is not natural to them, the form is 

 imposed upon them by an outside force. A living organism, 

 however, for all we know, is built up with the aid of entirely 

 natural macro-molecular structures, its form is not imposed 

 from outside, but is the natural result of the structure of 

 matter. This being so, it stands to reason that biochemists are 

 interested in a new field of research, properly called chemical 

 evolution. They try to understand how under natural con- 

 ditions macro-molecular structures could be formed on earth 

 and they have already found many interesting facts, as, for 

 example, the entirely natural formation of amino-acids, which 

 are important constituents of proteins. Although still much 

 remains to be done in this field, the first results are hopeful 

 for the mechanistic position. It seems likely that also the last 

 fortress of vitalism is doomed to be surrendered. In that case 

 the victory of mechanicism seems complete. But will it really 

 be a complete victory? 



With this question we have arrived at a point in our dis- 

 cussion which is of the highest philosophical importance — 



66 



