VI FUNCTIONS AND CATEGORIES 133 



conceptions of the nature and trend of the universe, between 

 Mechanism as ordinarily understood and what is here called 

 Holism. Those who wish to defend the old position of 

 Mechanism (and they are still the great majority in the 

 army of Science) will have to concentrate their forces at 

 this point. If the concept of creativeness, of the emergent 

 new in the Evolution of the universe, really wins through, 

 Mechanism as a scientific and philosophical category will 

 be reduced to very modest proportions. 



The creativeness of Evolution at all stages has indeed the 

 most profound effect on our views of Nature and her order 

 and on all our methods of explaining her processes. To 

 illustrate this let us revert once more to the oft-quoted 

 difference between a mere physical mixture and a chemical 

 compound. The mixture is, like the compound, a structure, 

 much looser, of course, than the compound, but still a 

 structure of sorts. But the compound differs from it in 

 being a radically different structure, a new structure has 

 emerged in the compound, a creative element has entered 

 into the process which was not there before. And the result 

 is a complete difference in all the pertinent phenomena of 

 the two. Even our very categories of description have to 

 undergo a corresponding transformation. If we tried to 

 describe the properties and actions of a chemical com- 

 pound on the same principles as those of a mechanical 

 mixture, we would go grievously wrong, and the real facts 

 would be hopelessly distorted. The creative element which 

 has entered into the chemical compound in its passage from 

 a mere physical mixture, the new structure which has re- 

 sulted from the change, requires new concepts and principles 

 of description. And this is freely admitted by chemists and 

 physicists alike. The case for new categories of description 

 becomes far stronger at the next creative advance, where 

 chemical structure is transformed into organic structure. 

 In both cases Holism is at work and produces a new struc- 

 ture; in the organic structure the creative advance is ad- 

 mittedly far greater than in the chemical compound. The 

 concentration and intensification of structure which we 



