VI FUNCTIONS AND CATEGORIES 139 



widening degrees of freedom, until finally at the human 

 stage freedom takes conscious control of itself and begins 

 to create the free ethical world of the Spirit. With that 

 development we shall deal at a later stage of this work. 

 Here it must suffice to have pointed out the humble begin- 

 nings of freedom. And even at this stage it is important 

 to bear in mind that the domain of life is largely distin- 

 guished from that of matter and energy by its greater de- 

 grees of freedom. Scientists speak of the degrees of freedom 

 even in an inorganic situation. And by this they mean the 

 element of contingency which seems inseparable even from 

 the purely physical order. The causal chain of Nature, 

 the necessity which characterises the procession of physical 

 events, does not exclude elements of chance or contingency. 

 An event may happen in this way or that way; there are 

 alternatives between which only the actual fact can decide. 

 To these possibilities or alternatives the phrase "degrees 

 of freedom" is applied. But in the domain of life it acquires 

 an added meaning, or rather, let me say, a real meaning. 

 Life is not entirely bound, even in its most primitive forms. 

 Hence its trials and experiments, its variations, its novelties 

 and its creativeness, which become ever more accentuated 

 in its progress. Evolution traces the grand line of escape 

 from the prison of matter to the full freedom of the Spirit. 

 It is clear that the beginnings of freedom are laid far back 

 in the early dawn of life itself, if not earlier. 



The above discussion of unified organic functioning, or 

 unity of action, causation, creation and freedom will suffice 

 to indicate how the whole as factor and concept involves a 

 transformation of physical actions and categories. They 

 have been selected as samples of holistic functions and cate- 

 gories and are not intended to be in any sense an exhaustive 

 enumeration of such functions and categories. A full list 

 would, for instance, include "individuality" and "purposive- 

 ness" as essential features, functions and categories of 

 wholes. They are, however, referred to in Chapter IX in 

 connection with Mind as an organ of Holism. At this 

 stage it is only necessary to make the briefest reference to 



