BIOLOGY L\ ITS WIDER ASPECTS 1253 



folk — that is the organism; (2) the place — that is the environment; 

 and (3) the work — which is a better word than function, because it 

 suggests external action on the environment. Therefore we would 

 suggest for expository purposes the following diagram : — 



BIOLOGICAL 

 VENVIRONMT 



^ PLACE 



OBJ. r— / / \ \ •. SOCIAL 



SUBr 



FUNC[riONINGS 

 WORK 



Fig. 199. 



Biological and Social. The outer triangle is biological, with its organismal, 

 functional, and environmental aspects. In the social sphere, Folk, Work 

 and Place correspond to Organisms, Functionings, and Environment; 

 in the Biosphere. The convex surface (OBJ.) indicates objective aspects, 

 the inner surface (SUB.) indicates the subjective life. 



This is a spherical triangle, of which the outer convex side may 

 represent the objective and physiological; the inner concave side 

 the subjective and psychological. If we visualise it in this way we 

 get away from illegitimate materialism — in other words, away from 

 the plane triangle. 



Now out of this graph there arises the formula already suggested 



as a descriptive definition of life. We may very simply, and 



to a certain extent, adequately, represent life by the fraction — 



Organism — Function — environment OFe. ^, . . 



_ . — : : — -- I his is a sort of 



Environment — Function — organism EFo 



intellectual shorthand, expressing the fact that life implies a con- 

 tinual balancing of the numerator and the denominator. The 

 numerator suggests the Organism acting upon and trafficking with 

 its environment ; the denominator suggests the Environment acting 

 upon and influencing the organism. At times the Organism is the 

 more active factor, dominating the environment. At other times the 

 Environment paralyses, stimulates, depresses, inspires, the organism 

 "o" in its grip. Among some people, especially in north temperate 

 countries, the numerator is often the more important. Thus the 

 hunter is always more concerned with the numerator ; he emphasises 

 the idea of the organism, unwilling to accept defeat, acting on the 



