3J^ ADAPTIVENESS AND PURPOSIVENESS 



SUBillARY. 



Our consideration of the realm of organisms has shown us the 

 apartness of living creatures and how they transcend mechanical 

 and dynamical formulation, the important role played by behaviour 

 with a definitely mental aspect, the pervasiveness of beauty, and 

 the large proportion of time and energy devoted to activities which 

 make not for self-presers^ation but for race-welfare. We find, in 

 fact, in Animate Nature far-reaching correspondences to our ideals 

 of the True, the Beautiful, and the Good, — which suggest a re- 

 habilitation of Natural Theology. 



Taking a wide sweej) we gain another great impression — that 

 of almost universal adaptiveness. Every living creature is a bundle 

 of adaptations. It matters comparatively little that we are to some 

 extent able to describe the process by which these adaptations have 

 arisen (the imperfections of this description to be considered later), 

 for the basal fact remains that living creatures have had the capacity 

 of evolving thus adaptively. The adaptiveness depends on intrinsic 

 qualities, previously discussed, which are more striking than ready- 

 made fitnesses. 



Adaptations may be classified as: — (1) structural arrangements 

 with internal or external reference, (2) co-ordinating functional 

 adjustments of a special sort, including regulatory integrations, and 

 (3) inter-organismal adaptations. The result of the last is a sys- 

 tematisation or co-ordination of lives, world-wide in its scope, and 

 often extraordinarily subtle in its accomplishment. 



In the inorganic domain we find rigorous concatenation, a domi- 

 nance of mechanical necessitation. There are no unique individual- 

 ities, no alternatives; and the concept of purpose is irrelevant (except 

 when we are thinking of the significance of the evolutionary trend 

 as a whole). On the other hand, in the human realm of ends, ideal 

 anticipations are dominant. Our conduct implies purposeful self- 

 determination. There is no difficulty until we begin to consider 

 the realm of organisms, — between the inorganic and the human. 



It may be said that the organism as a whole is characteristically 

 purposive, — " a unity in which the whole and the parts are recip- 

 rocally ends to each other''. It shows some measure of self-deter- 

 mination; its behaviour is regulatory, selective, controlled; the 

 activities of its parts are correlated in reference to the preservation 

 and continuance of the individual and the race. The development 



