ADAPTIVENESS AND PURPOSIVENESS 331 



an interesting tendency to complexify under certain condi- 

 tions, but it does not reveal any resident operative purpose. 

 It will be understood that by ' purpose ' in this discussion 

 we mean intention, conative endeavour, anticipation of an 

 end. We are not taking account of the employment of the 

 word to denote use or efficiency, as when people say that 

 the purpose of the elephant's trunk is to be a hand, or that 

 a man worked to good purpose. 



The other saving clause is, that we are not at present 

 raising the question of the part that the inorganic has played 

 in the world-wide genetic process in making organisms pos- 

 sible, and still plays in affording a basis for, and an oppo- 

 sition to the activities of organisms and personalities. The 

 way in which a cradle and a home for organisms was made 

 " when as yet there was none of them " is very remarkable 

 (see Henderson, The Order of Nature, 1917), and will en- 

 gage our attention later on. This may point to there hav- 

 ing been a purpose in the institution of Nature, but not to 

 there being a resident operative purpose in inorganic trans- 

 formations. 



4. Purposefulness and Purposiveness in Human 

 Behaviour. 



The other pole is to be found in human affairs, where 

 purposefulness dominates. When we give time and energy 

 to some scheme or cause, we know that what we do is actu- 

 ated by a clearly conceived purpose. No one can make sense 

 of our life who does not recognise this, even if he call it 

 the method in our madness. An anticipation, an ideal, with 

 an associated tension of endeavour and glow of feeling, does 

 as a matter of fact rule our will on many occasions. If 

 this conceived purpose is not real, " with hands and feet ", 



