3o8 HOLISM AND EVOLUTION chap. 



ciple of each individual whole set free in the course of this 

 Evolution. As Holism in its individuating activity evolves 

 and sets free smaller wholes, these wholes are themselves 

 in ever-increasing measures set free from external deter- 

 mination and acquire an ever greater measure of self- 

 determination and freedom in their activities and develop- 

 ment. Holism not only means the development of the 

 universe on holistic lines, the realisation of ever more 

 perfect wholes, and the assimilation, transformation and 

 absorption of non-holistic material or relations. It means 

 also the ever-widening reign of Freedom, the realisation 

 of the Ideal of Freedom in the gradual breaking down of 

 all external fetters, and the gradually increasing inward 

 self-determination of the universe through the progres- 

 sive evolution of ever higher holistic entities in the universe. 

 This free holistic activity is not only the source of the idea 

 of causation in human consciousness; it is ultimately the 

 only source of efficient action or causation in the universe. 

 The free activity of Holism or a whole is the type and 

 source of all efficient causation. The concept of neces- 

 sity, which arises in connection with that of causation, is 

 not grounded in the reality of things, but is (as Kant 

 showed) a mere mental expedient for joining up or recon- 

 necting parts of the whole which have become dissociated or 

 severed in the course of thought or experience. The syn- 

 thetic activity of mind, in producing the category of neces- 

 sity, is simply intended to recover or reconstitute intellect- 

 ually that whole which has been shattered into fragments in 

 experience and thought; and as mind is itself but part of 

 the larger whole of Personality, this intention can only 

 be carried out imperfectly. In the whole Freedom and 

 Causation, or rather efficient action, are not utterly 

 different; their antagonism arises only in the application 

 of consciousness to the atomic aspects of our empirical 

 experiences. Determinism is in the last resort based on 

 free holistic self-determination. We may sum up by 

 saying that Holism is free, and in so far as Holism has 

 realised itself in the universe, in so far as the universe is of 



