V GENERAL CONCEPT OF HOLISM 105 



functions have themselves a creative or holistic char- 

 acter, as we shall see in the sequel. At the start the 

 fact of structure is all-important in wholes, but as we ascend 

 the scale of wholes, we see structure becoming secondary to 

 function, we see function becoming the dominant feature of 

 the whole, we see it as a correlation of all the activities of 

 the structure and effecting new syntheses which are more 

 and more of a creative character. 



There is a creative activity, progress and development of 

 wholes, and the successive phases of this creative Evolution 

 are marked by the development of ever more complex and 

 significant wholes. Thus there arises a progressive scale of 

 wholes, rising from the material bodies of inorganic nature 

 through the plant and animal kingdoms to man and the 

 great ideal and artistic creations of the spiritual world. 

 However much the wholes may increase in complexity and 

 fruitful significance as we go upward, the fundamental 

 activity which produces these results retains its specific 

 holistic character all through. At first, according to our 

 present knowledge, it appears only as a definite material 

 structure of energy units, as a specific synthesis or arrange- 

 ment of material parts, for instance, in a chemical compound 

 or a crystal. We have already seen how this structure 

 approaches in several respects the more holistic characters 

 of life, and it may well be that the future progress of science 

 will add greatly to our evidence on this point. But even as 

 it is now known, the specific structure and character of the 

 chemical compound makes it a sort of whole, quite distinct 

 from mere physical or mechanical mixtures. As we proceed 

 in the rise of Nature we see in plants how this specific struc- 

 ture, this synthesis and arrangement of parts and characters, 

 assumes a new co-operative character — the character of 

 groups of related activities which are all co-ordinated into 

 intimate relations and functions so as to preserve the plant 

 and maintain its activities as a whole. As we proceed to 

 animals we find not only this intimate structural synthesis 

 of parts and characters on a co-operative basis and with 

 co-ordinated functions, but in the emergence of the central 



