240 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION chap. 



is not only the soundest science, it is fundamental to 

 psychology. The world in experience is at bottom my 

 reading of the world in which / am the centre reference, 

 where the system of co-ordinates of measurement is 

 my private system; and the space, time and experience 

 which go to the making of it are my space, time and 

 experience. Objectivity and universality are indeed 

 attainable, but only from a subjective and individual 

 starting-point and centre of reference. Individuation is 

 bound up with reality on the psychic plane. What has 

 been looked upon as a reproach to psychology, namely, the 

 essentially subjective standpoint which rules it, the self 

 which it discloses as central to all our experience of 

 reality now appears to be equally necessary for all the 

 other sciences as well. Natural Science, which has always 

 prided itself on its objectivity and freedom from all sub- 

 jective consideration, now finds that after all psychology 

 has been right; that the despised subject or Self or 

 psychology not only is a real factor in the universe, but 

 is central to all true knowledge of it. Here at last natural 

 science and psychology can clasp hands and together in true 

 partnership go forward on the great adventure of knowledge 

 which is their common task. Their separation has been a 

 calamity to both; their reunion will prove fruitful beyond 

 our fondest dreams. Einstein's great achievement is but 

 the first-fruits of that reunion. 



Let us for a moment look a little more closely at this 

 individualistic aspect of Holism in its higher developments. 

 We have seen how it begins as physical and chemical affini- 

 ties and selectivities; later on in the region of life we saw it 

 appearing as organic selection and appetitiveness. On the 

 mental level again it emerges as a certain striving, a seeking, 

 a conativeness, which, when attention has risen to the 

 level of consciousness, becomes purposive. Thereafter the 

 individual no longer floats forward on inorganic or organic 

 drifts, tendencies and appetites, but begins to direct his 

 course according to conscious voluntary purposes. The 

 individual makes his own plans and no longer automatically 



