V GENERAL CONCEPT OF HOLISM 109 



of Holism, so to say, dissolves the heterogeneous concepts ' 

 of matter, life and mind, and then recrystallises them out as 

 polymorphous forms of itself. The monism which results 

 is not static or barren, as monism necessarily is in the 

 philosophy of Absolutism, but progressive, creative and 

 pluralistic in accordance with the demands of scientific 

 theory. We shall thus be prepared to find more of life in 

 matter, and more of mind in life, because the hard-and-fast 

 demarcations between them have fallen away. While accept- 

 ing these terms (matter, life and mind) as generally and 

 roughly marking off the main divisions of reality, we shall 

 not be tempted to force their application too far, and we 

 shall be prepared for such limits to their extensions as 

 science may show to be necessary. 



In the third place, a very real advantage will accrue from 

 the substitution of a more definite concept for the vague 

 and unsatisfactory idea of life. The vagueness and indefi- 

 niteness of the idea of life has proved a serious stumbling- 

 block and has largely influenced biologists to look for the 

 way (Hit in the direction of mechanism. The concept of ; 

 life has no definite content which makes it of any scientific 

 value. Its value is roughly to demarcate an area from 

 other areas; it is a name for a class of phenomena which 

 differ generally from other classes. As such it will remain 

 useful in Science, in addition to its popular use, which of 

 course no amount of criticism will ever affect. The term 

 "matter" will remain in popular use in spite of the fact 

 that Science may completely change its meaning; its 

 connotation may be revolutionised while it remains in use 

 to denote a class of sensible phenomena for which there is 

 no other equally convenient name. Similarly with the use 

 of the term "life." It will remain useful to denote a class 

 of phenomena, without it remaining or being useful in 

 describing them, which will have to be done through more 

 rigorous concepts. The concept of life is too vague to be 

 definable and pinned down to a definite content; at the 

 same time, and perhaps for that very reason, it is liable to 

 be hypostatised into a substance or a force apart from the 



