104 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION chap. 



interior element or action of bodies which are wholes, and 

 that this element or action is of a specific ascertainable 

 character. 



Wholes are therefore composites which have an internal 

 structure, furxtion or character which clearly differentiates 

 them from mere mechanical additions or constructions, such 

 as science assumes on the mechanical hypothesis. And this 

 internal element which transforms a mere mechanical 

 addition or sum into a whole shows a progressive develop- 

 ment in Nature. Wholes are dynamic, organic, evolu- 

 tionary, creative. The mere idea of creativeness should be 

 enough to negative the purely mechanical conception of the 

 universe. 



It is very important to recognise that the whole is not 

 something additional to the parts : it is the parts in a definite 

 structural arrangement and with mutual activities that 

 constitute the whole. The structure and the activities 

 differ in character according to the stage of development of 

 the whole; but the whole is just this specific structure of 

 parts with their appropriate activities and functions. Thus 

 water as a chemical compound is, as we have seen, a whole 

 in a limited sense, an incipient whole, differing qualitatively 

 from its uncompounded elements Hydrogen and Oxygen 

 in a mere state of mixture; it is a new specific structure 

 with new physical and chemical properties. The whole as a 

 biological organism is an immensely more complex structure 

 with vastly more complex activities and functions than a 

 mere chemical compound. But it must not be conceived 

 as something over and above its parts in their structural 

 synthesis, including the unique activities, and functions 

 which accompany this synthesis. It is the very essence of 

 the concept of the whole that the parts are together in a 

 unique specific combination, in a specific internal related- 

 ness, in a creative S3mthesis which differentiates it from 

 all other forms of combination or togetherness. The 

 combination of the elements into this structure is in a 

 sense creative, that is to say, creative of new structure 

 and new properties and functions. These properties and 



