The Interpretation of Experience 7 7 



(i) At each stage in the evohitionary process the idea of 

 teleology has a different content. The teleology of the amoeba, 

 worm, fish, carnivorous and herbivorous animals and man is 

 different and may be contradictory. From this point of view 

 the human conception of Teleology is genetically conditioned by 

 the process of development of which it is a part. 



(2) The process of Evolution affords no genetic or logical rea- 

 son for the ultimate validity of human ideas of moral purpose. 



(3) There is no general agreement among mankind as to 

 ultimate conceptions or standards, and no man has a priori 

 concept of purpose. 



The mechanical and teleological interpretations of Nature are 

 in need of a synthesis. The fact that they are not mutually ex- 

 clusive or contradictory implies that they are specialised points 

 of view and suggests that possibly a common basis can be found 

 for their interpretation. It would seem as if the mechanical view 

 involved the interpretation of the phenomena of nature from the 

 physical level and in the terms of the concepts of mechanical 

 science. Even in biology, where we have to deal with matter 

 in an organic form, we still find the attempt made to interpret 

 the phenomena of life in mechanical terms. In similar fashion, 

 the teleological interpretation of Nature is a purposive explana- 

 tion, generally in terms of human concepts of end and volition. 



Both of these partial and complementary views can be har- 

 monised only in the light of some principle of idealistic inter- 

 pretation from the cosmic point of view. Then the mechanical 

 fact and the ideal significance become one. 



It would seem meaningless to apply the concept of human 

 Teleology in a wholesale way to the cosmic process. To do so 

 means that we are applying it to phenomena of various qualities 

 with which it is not homogeneous, and consequently the argu- 

 ments based thereon are possibly fallacious. If we do wish to 

 make this cosmic application of teleology, we shall have to sub- 

 stitute for our human teleology the conception of cosmic teleology : 

 and the two are by no means synonymous, any more than human 

 good and evil and cosmic good and evil are necessarily identical. 



There is frequently a confusion between the meaning of a 

 thing and its origin. A thing cannot from the same point of 

 view be interpreted both in terms of its origin and of its mean- 



