CONFORMITY WITH PLAN 353 



Men have tried, in the face of all known analogies, to refer 

 to unorganised forces and substances the organisation of 

 organisms themselves. 



Quite consciously they have turned away from recognition 

 of natural forces imposing order, and in this way they have 

 attempted to dispose of the problem of life. 



We know now that this is not possible, but that behind 

 every living creature lie elements that are not disorderly but 

 arranged, consisting of pegs and sockets that fit into one 

 another. 



The organising forces of Nature are, in their essence, 

 specifically constituted otherwise than are the unorganised 

 forces of physics. Accordingly we are quite justified in 

 speaking of " specific energies," or life-energies. Their specific 

 nature consists in their existing only in an organised con- 

 dition. Their specific singularity, organisation, does not 

 come under the law of the conservation of energy, which 

 has only to do with quantities, and not with arrangements. 

 In contrast to this, organisation in the world of the living, 

 which expresses itself in increased complexity, is a process 

 of perpetual shaping. 



It is true that the simplest organisms are just as congruous 

 as are the highest. But the congruity of the highest is very 

 much more many-sided. 



The manner in which the specific energies are associated 

 dispenses with mechanical compulsion, but is, in its nature, 

 an imperative. AU living beings develop, not in accordance 

 with a causal " thou must," as is characteristic of the un- 

 organised forces, but according to a biological " thou shalt." 



As we know, since Kant's day the ethical command " thou 

 shalt " is referred to a transcendental influence on the empirical 

 character of the human being, and the empirical character, 

 with a " thou must," forces the decision. 



On this analogy, we may describe all actions of the body 



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