1 68 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION chap. 



structures and arrangements, that the difficulties arise and 

 the physical system seems to come into conflict with the 

 systems of life and mind. 



If my reasoning is correct the result is most important. 

 It suggests and indicates the way in which, in bio-chemical 

 and psycho-physical wholes, Life the selector and Mind the 

 director may exercise their essential functions in bodies 

 without coming into conflict with the laws of energy as 

 ordinarily understood. The detailed method and mechanism 

 of interaction is not yet explained, but at least the possibility 

 of conflict is eliminated; we see that these two systems may 

 function in harmony and without violation of fundamental 

 physical principles on the one hand or the stultification 

 and nullification of life and mind on the other. The possi- 

 bility of harmonious functioning is established; the actuality 

 of the process and its details remains for further discussion. 



Let me once more state the issue raised by physical 

 science in connection with life and mind and see how the 

 result we have now reached meets that issue. Taking for 

 granted that the statistical laws of energy apply fully to 

 all purely physical systems, the following questions arise: 



1. Do they also apply to systems, such as living organisms 

 or conscious personalities, which are not purely physical 

 systems? 



2. Further, in such mixed systems, is the effect of the 

 non-physical factor, life or mind, on the physical part of 

 the system such that the laws of energy do no longer fully 

 apply to this part? In other words do life and mind dis- 

 turb, deflect and alter th^ application of the principles of 

 energy to the physical part in such mixed systems as 

 living bodies or conscious personalities? 



The answer to the first question is in the affirmative and 

 to the second question in the negative. The laws of energy 

 hold for the physical mechanisms of organisms and persons 

 no less than for purely physical systems ; and the influences 

 of life and mind, whatever they may be in other directions, 

 do not invalidate the application of these laws to bodies or 

 persons in so far as they are physical systems or mechanisms. 



