V GENERAL CONCEPT OF HOLISM 117 



Holism as including all wholes which are the ultimate crea- ! 

 tive centres of reality in the world. s 



Difficulty may arise because Holism will sometimes also 

 be used in another sense, to denote a theory of the uni- 

 verse. Thus while matter and spirit are taken as real or 

 substantive factors, and material-ism and spiritual-ism or 

 ideal-ism as concepts or theories in reference to them re-^ 

 spectively, it would by analogy not be improper to use the 

 term Hol-ism to express the view that the ultimate reality 

 of the universe is neither matter nor spirit but wholes as 

 defined in this book. And sometimes Holism will be used in 

 that wider sense as a theory of reality. But its primary and 

 proper use is to denote the totality of wholes which operate 

 as real factors and give to reality its dynamic evolutionary 

 creative character. No confusion need arise if these two 

 distinct applications of the term are borne in mind. 



