124 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION chap. 



deeply affecting the parts and their functions, is not such as 

 to merge the parts completely, but to leave them a latitude 

 which varies with individual wholes at the same state of 

 development, and still more at different stages of develop- 

 ment. To this latter point we shall revert hereafter. 



From this fundamental unity of the parts which consti- 

 tute the whole, and the intimate reciprocal influence which 

 parts and whole exert on each other, follow certain results 

 of great importance for our general concept of the whole. 



In the first place, unity of action, which is characteristic 

 of the whole, shows itself in the marked power of regulation 

 and correlation which the whole appears to possess in re- 

 spect of its parts. This is perhaps the most striking fea- 

 ture of organic wholes; however complex they are, a certain 

 balanced correlation of functions is maintained. If there 

 is any disturbance among the parts which upsets the 

 routine of the whole, then either this disturbance is elimi- 

 nated by the co-operative effort of many or all the parts, 

 or the functions of the other parts are so readjusted that 

 a new balance and routine is established. The synthetic 

 unity of the whole produces synthetic or holistic action 

 throughout the whole; the activities and functions of the 

 parts also become holistic, so that in addition to their ordi- 

 nary routine they have a whole-ward aspect or tendency 

 which becomes active whenever the balance of the whole 

 is disturbed. It is this holistic character distinguishing 

 the activity and functions not only of the whole but also 

 of its parts which underlies the remarkable phenomena of 

 co-operation among cells to which attention was drawn in 

 the fourth chapter. The co-operation is not so much the 

 interaction of independent units as in truth and really the 

 pressure of the whole on the parts. Indeed the entire func- 

 tion or system of the organism is holistic; the synthetic 

 unity of the whole is so deeply stamped on the parts and 

 reflected in the activities of the parts, that they all appear 

 to ^'play up" to each other, and to co-operate in maintaining 

 or, in case of disturbance, restoring the balance of equi- 

 librium of activities which is characteristic of the particular 



