VII MECHANISM AND HOLISM 155 



physical nature, as it is commonly understood, as a closed 

 system, complete in itself. The chain of physical causation 

 is complete, and there is no need or place for anything of a 

 non-physical character. There is a complete system of 

 equations as between the past and the future. Effect equals 

 cause; and there is no necessity or place for any tertium quid. 

 Necessity and determination characterise the order of Na- 

 ture, the laws of Thermodynamics supply a test of its work- 

 ing character. Where then do life and mind come in? What 

 is their function and their relation to this physical order? 

 What difference can they make to this complete, closed, 

 self-sufficing system? If they have any effect, it can only 

 be by interfering with the inevitable chain of physical 

 causation and thus breaking the laws of energy. If life or 

 will or mind has any practical effect, that would mean an 

 interference with physical causes, with the fixed and deter- 

 mined energy equations. But no such interference can be 

 detected in any direction; the causal physical chain remains 

 unbroken; the laws of energy are unalterable. We are 

 therefore forced to the conclusion that life and mind have 

 no real effect and are of no avail in the world. If they were, 

 the fundamental laws of Nature would be upset. Such is 

 the view-point of physical science. 



But, on the other hand, we are just as firmly persuaded 

 by the most clear and unequivocal deliverances of our 

 consciousness that we can choose, that we can direct our 

 attention and action to definite purposes; that our willing 

 is effective; that we can will to perform an act, and perform 

 it accordingly; that our bodily organs respond to the act of 

 will in spite of all the energy equations; that within limits 

 we can do what we will to do. Unless our consciousness 

 and our senses quite deceive us, this seems to be as plain and 

 self-evident as anything in our experience. And thus we 

 are landed in self-contradictions. On the one hand, the 

 unbreakable chain of natural causation and the laws of 

 energy; on the other, our indubitable consciousness of the 

 effectiveness of our power of free self-directed action. How 

 is the contradiction to be overcome? We are not concerned 



