V GENERAL CONCEPT OF HOLISM loi 



alike. But no real use has been made of this great concept 

 even by philosophers, v/hile by scientists it has been steadily 

 neglected or ignored under the iron rule of the mechanistic 

 regime. And yet the stone rejected by the builders may 

 become the corner-stone of the building. 



Let us now proceed to consider the idea of a whole more 

 closely; and let us once more begin with natural biological 

 wholes, such as plants or animals. An organism, like a 

 plant or animal, is a natural whole. It is self-acting and 

 self-moving. Its principle of movement or action is not 

 external to itself but internal. It is not actuated or moved 

 by some external principle or force, like a machine or an 

 artificial construction. The source of its activity is internal 

 and of a piece with itself, is indeed itself. It consists of 

 parts, but its parts are not merely put together. Their 

 togetherness is not mechanical, but rests on a different basis. 

 The organism consists of parts, but it is more than the sum 

 of its parts, and if these parts are taken to pieces the organ- 

 ism is destroyed and cannot be reconstituted by again put- 

 ting together the severed parts. These parts are in active 

 relations to each other, which vary with the parts and the 

 organisms ; but in no case is there anything inactive or inert 

 about the relations of these parts to each other or to the 

 whole organism. The organism further has the power of 

 maintaining itself by taking in other parts, such as food, but 

 again, as we saw in the last chapter, it does so not by mere 

 mechanical addition, but by a complete transformation, as- 

 similation and appropriation into its own peculiar system 

 of the material so taken in. Moreover, the organism is 

 creative in that it is capable, under certain conditions, of 

 reproducing itself in closely similar wholes. 



This rough summary is sufficient to indicate the main 

 general characters of biological wholes. When we reach 

 the more advanced levels of development in the higher 

 animals and man, we are confronted with additional 

 characters of a psychological nature, such as intelligence, 

 will, consciousness, central control and direction of a more 

 or less voluntary and deliberate kind. For our present 



