ADAPTATIONS 145 



such an explanation is really no explanation 



at all. A mowing-machine is no doubt adapted 



for keeping a lawn smooth and a pump for 



raising water from a well, but both of these 



are so adapted because they have been made Adaptation 



for that pupose and no other. The term' 



adaptation is only utilisablejn connection with ' 



a feTic explanation of living things, and it is 



just that telic explanation which is so unpalat- 



able_ to the mechanist school. Yet it is difficult 



to see how such an explanation can be avoided 



by any one who really studies the behaviour 



of living things. 



Our own behaviour and the behaviour of the 

 animals and birds around us would seem to 

 point clearly enough to purposive actions, and 

 this is a fact which is tacitly at least admitted 

 even by those who believe most strongly in 

 mechanist views. 



If any machine habitually repeats the same 

 action and repeats that action in a precisely 

 similar manner on every occasion, no one could 

 have much difficulty in coming to the conclu- 

 sion that it was for the purpose of performing 

 that action that it was constructed. Moreover, 

 if it performs no action but the one, it may 

 reasonably be assumed that that action is auto- 

 matically performed and no question as to the 

 sentient nature of the machine will arise. On 



K 



