VI FUNCTIONS AND CATEGORIES 123 



molecules persist in the new compound, just as the cells 

 persist in the organism. But their independent functions 

 and activities are, just as themselves, grouped, related, 

 correlated and unified in the structural whole. To the 

 structural unity of the parts in the whole corresponds an 

 equally and perhaps even more significant functional unity 

 or correlation of activities. Just as in dynamics a body 

 subject to pulls in various directions moves with one result- 

 ant velocity in one definite direction, so the functions and 

 the activities of the parts in the whole are all co-ordinated 

 and unified into one complex character which belongs or 

 appears to belong to the whole as such. With this differ- 

 ence, again (just as in the difference between a physical 

 mixture and a chemical compound), that the resultant 

 function is not a mere addition and composition of the 

 unaltered composing functional elements, but the change 

 involves both the elements and their final result. Thus 

 taking :*: to represent a mixture and Xi to represent a whole, 

 we cannot say that a + b + c + d — x (mixture) in the 

 one case and = Xi (whole) in the other; but in the synthesis 

 which results in Xi the functions of the parts themselves 

 are changed into ai, bi, Ci, di, so that corresponding to 

 the formula of mixture a-^- b + c -{- d = x we have the 

 holistic formula ai + bi + Ci + di = Xi. It is most im- 

 portant to realise this point; both the individual functions 

 of the parts (cells, organs, etc.) and their composition or 

 correlation in the complex are affected and altered by the 

 synthesis which is the whole. Not only does the synthesis 

 of the parts influence and indeed constitute the whole; 

 the whole in its turn impresses its character on each indi- 

 vidual part, which feels its influence in the most real and 

 intimate manner. The whole-ward tendency and activity 

 of the parts is most deeply characteristic of the nature of 

 the whole. This, then, is the primary and most important 

 dement in the concept of the whole: the synthetic unity 

 of structure and its functions which affects the parts and 

 their functions or activities without their loss or destruc- 

 tion. The unity, although so close and intimate and so 



