Vitality and Organization of Protoplasm. 81 



The chemical potencies evince themselves as forming unitary bodies, 

 all of whose constituent parts, though consisting of heterogeneous ele- 

 ments known to enter into their composition, are, nevertheless, some- 

 how intimately blended so as to form integrant and not merely aggre- 

 gated components of the same. They evince themselves, furthermore, 

 in displaying specific modes of action and reaction nowise deducible as 

 combined mechanical effects of the spatial arrangement and modes 

 of motion of the component elements. The chemical body acts and 

 reacts as a specfic whole; not simply in one definite mechanically quan- 

 titative manner; but in manifold peculiar and diverse qualitative ways. 



The specific vital potencies evince themselves, above all, in the power 

 of certain such phyletically elaborate chemical wholes to reintegrate 

 themselves, after partial disintegration, through assimilation of comple- 

 mental material. The integrity, and therewith the identity of the or- 

 ganic being as a whole, is thereby preserved, despite functional and 

 other modes of deterioration. Every part of an organism is a comple- 

 niental fragment of the whole, and not merely an aggregated compo- 

 nent. Germs of all kinds are such fragments, endowed with the power 

 of reintegrating or regenerating the whole of which they are fragments. 

 This reproduction of the whole organism as final aim of the ontogenetic 

 process, resulting, moreover, in its complete adaptation to the medium 

 with which it is to enter into manifold modes of interaction; this strik- 

 ing and undeniably purposeful evolution towards a predetermined end 

 serves as prototype for the conception of teleology in nature^^ or of. so- 

 called final causes. Such strange constructive aiming at the attainment 

 of something whose future existence and constitution are strictly prede- 

 termined, yet only potentially jiresent, has ever been one of the princi- 

 {)al puzzles of philosophy and natural science. It finds its explana- 

 tion solely in biological conditions, and exclusively applies to the same.* 



*"We are confronted by the nnieh-vexed, yet still open problem, how differ- 

 ent units come to be constitutionally destined to enter into interdependent rela- 

 tions so as aimfully to form an oiganically efficient whole." ''This consideration 

 of innate reciprocal dependence in the constitiition of a larger whole involves 

 the entire teleological riddle; the puzzle, namely, how the integral constitution of 

 a whole, eventuallj to be formed, can possibly act as a so-called final cause, act 

 as the chief determining cause of the nature, disposition and function of the 

 constituent units that enter into its formation. 



Kant sought to argue away t(deology in nature by declaring it to be a pecu- 

 liar mode of our conception of a certain order of things. He held that every 

 occurrence in nature being strictly dependent on immediate or so-called efficient 

 causation, final causes could not possibly enter into the system of nature. And 

 ,\ recently, much in the way of Empedocles of old, natural selection has been be- 

 ' lieved more particularly to reduce all seeming teleology in nature to mechanical 

 [ or, at least, to elfieient causation. In fact, the principal aim of our present 

 scientific interpretsition of nature is to attribute all its occurrences to adequate 

 mechanical causation. 



Natural science, when it interprets organization as resulting thus simply 

 from the peculiar rearrangeinent of so many pre-existing material units moved 

 by so much pre-existing energy, misses in its explanation all that is most essen- 

 tial to an adequate understanding of the case. The fact here overlooked, the 

 essential fact, is that in the process of orgajiic development new modes of aim- 





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