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CHAPTER VIII 

 CONFORMITY WITH PLAN 



INTRODUCTION 



If by biology we understand the doctrine of conformity 

 with plan in the world of living things, we shall realise that 

 one of the fundamental inquiries of the science must be 

 into the nature of this conformity. Is the conformity with 

 plan that we can demonstrate in all organisms, inseparably 

 associated with their being ? Or is it merely a creation 

 by uncritical analogy with our human life, perhaps incapable 

 of sustaining objective consideration, which sees nothing 

 but causality in all natural phenomena ? There has been 

 much in favour of the second view, and more especially 

 the name given to conformity with plan. Instead of seeing 

 in it merely a rule stretching across time and space, men 

 have spoken of " purpose " and " purposefulness " in Nature ; 

 and this introduced the idea of Nature as a sort of human 

 being, foreseeing future events and acting accordingly. 



But just where conformity with plan is easiest to detect, 

 we can find no trace of any such human-like being. It is 

 advisable therefore to dismiss from biology, for all time, ex- 

 pressions such as " purpose " and " purposefulness." What 

 remains uncontested is the presence of a rule in living Nature, 

 which reveals itself even in the mechanical processes of the 

 organism. The only debatable question that remains is 

 this — " Is there only a mechanical law in the world of living 



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