92 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION chap. 



this, that the pursuit of the separate paths of science and 

 philosophy will not bring us to our goal. Their roads must 

 be made to converge. Concepts must be developed which 

 will include the material and the view-points of both science 

 and philosophy. The pathway of the real is neither abstract 

 general principles nor the wilderness of details; and if we 

 wish to understand Evolution, we must develop concepts 

 adequate to its actual process, concepts which will be repre- 

 sentative of its real characters of concreteness and uni- 

 versality. In other words, we must construct a conceptual 

 model which will as accurately as possible reproduce what 

 actually goes on in the process of cosmic Evolution, our 

 main concern being to make our explanation of Nature's 

 process as true to actual observed facts as possible. Abstract 

 principles alone cannot carry us to the understanding of the 

 concrete procedure of Evolution. Structures by themselves, 

 again, cannot generalise themselves into a universal process 

 such as Evolution. Mere structure is not enough, because 

 it misses the generic, the universal in reality. General 

 principles or tendencies are not enough, because they are 

 not concrete such as natural reality is. The two must be 

 blended in a new concept. And it may be found that the 

 new concept is actually not a blend of them, but the original 

 unity from which they have been dissociated, and that the 

 synthesis produces more than a mere concept, reveals in fact 

 an operative causal principle of fundamental significance. 



^ To illustrate how philosophers operate with general prin- 

 ciples or tendencies which refuse to produce particularity, 

 and therefore fail to explain the concrete character of reality, 

 let us glance for a moment at Bergson's system. Any other 

 would have served perhaps equally well, but Bergson has the 

 great merit of being the most influential and brilliant 



I exponent of the philosophy of Evolution in our time, and a 

 reference to his work will therefore keep us close to our own 

 subject matter. Bergson singles out the principle of 

 Duration as both ultimate and all-embracing and as thus 

 capable of both generating and explaining reality. He 

 reaches the concept of Duration by going back into the 



