322 VINCENT E. SMITH 



and higher forms. The gradual preparation of matter to sustain 

 life would itself be evidence of the evolutionary direction in the 

 history of nature. Teilhard has summed up the truly evolu- 

 tionary trend, believed discernible throughout the whole cos- 

 mos, by his term " complexification." ®^ 



In this light evolution is irreducible to entropy, even though 

 both may be universal and correlative; and the techniques to 

 measure entropy may not in general be fitted to detect the 

 qualitative and finalized character of genuine evolution. We 

 may have here an analogue to Bohr's principle of comple- 

 mentarity. Nevertheless, evidence for both principles, for what- 

 ever conviction it may carry, has become embodied in the 

 language of contemporary cosmologists, and is there to see 

 even in the outline we have been sketching. 



3) Whether evolution and entropy are absolute and neces- 

 sary laws need cause us no scruples in our assessment of their 

 meaning. The continued existence of apparently very old living 

 forms that did not either evolve or become extinct may be an 

 exception to evolution as a truly absolute universal, and there 

 are arguments that entropy too is only approximation. But if 

 evolution and entropy are true for the most part, they are, 

 by such a status alone, entitled to a legal status in scientific 

 explanations. 



Will further research modify our current notions of evolution 

 and entropy.'' Perhaps it will. But once more these two con- 

 cepts must be taken seriously by the philosopher of nature. 

 For the philosopher, even though not limited to current experi- 

 mental evidence and theory, is bound to take account, to the 

 extent that he can, of up-to-the minute scientific findings. If 

 he waits until all such results are in, he will wait forever. 

 But if he sifts through the reports of the science of his time, 

 he may hit upon that element of truth to be found in every 

 system of thought "* and, in the case of modern physics, an 

 element usually submitted to more or less careful checks. 



"^ Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man (New York, 1959) p. 48. 

 ^*Meta., II, 1, 993a 30-993b 7. 



