542 THE EVOLUTION OF MIND 



According to the extreme meclianistic schools, behaviour is, or will 

 be, thoroughly explicable in physiological terms, i.e., in protoplas- 

 mic terms, i.e., in physico-chemical terms. Even Man is but an 

 " adaptive mechanism ", we are told by a physiological authority, 

 ' who enumerates, however, among the functions of the mechanism 

 " the fabrication of thought " — including the concept of " adaptive 

 mechanism ". But this view is a contradiction in terms theoretically, 

 and a contradiction of common-sense practically. On the apsychic 

 theory, that mind does not count, we may make much of horse and 

 dog, but certainly not the most. In man's everyday life (apart 

 from contemplation, imagination, aBsthetic emotion, hard thinking, 

 and the like), there is familiar evidence of the efficiency of mind 

 in coping with novel difficulties, in anticipating a rarely occurring 

 risk, in the purposeful correlation of acts towards a distant end, in 

 the influence of affective states (such as joy) on the functions of 

 the body, and so on. Of similar efficiency among animals there is 

 presumptive evidence. 



The further question is whether mind has practically counted in 

 Animate Evolution. Some have answered that mind is not in any 

 degree a vera causa in evolution. Others that mind is the essential 

 driving force in all evolutionary change. But a middle position 

 seems more defensible. 



There is a physiological driving force in organisms, and in many 

 cases they are body-minds rather than mind-bodies. But the evolu- 

 tionary efficiency of mind is seen among animals in the search for 

 suitable environments, in intelligent Life-favouring devices, in per- 

 sistent endeavour towards a distant goal, in training the young, 

 in the conventions of social life, in the impelling influence of emo- 

 tions, and in many other cases. Cunning has been more of a 

 factor than luck. 



