THE SYSTEM 59 



confused thinking than that of the following 

 passage : 



" The idea that the organism as a whole 

 cannot be explained from a physico-chemical 

 viewpoint rests most strongly on the existence of 

 animal instincts and will. Many of the instinctive 

 actions are ' purposeful,' i.e. assisting to pre- 

 serve the individual and the race. This again 

 suggests ' design ' and a designing ' force,' which 

 we do not find in the realm of physics. We 

 must remember, however, that there was a 

 time when the same ' purposefulness ' was be- 

 lieved to exist in the cosmos where everything 

 seemed to turn literally and metaphorically around 

 the earth, the abode of man. In the latter case, 

 the anthropo- or geo-centric view came to an 

 end when it was shown that the motions of the 

 planets were regulated by Newton's law, and 

 that there was no room left for the activities of a 

 guiding power. Likewise, in the realm of in- 

 stincts, when it can be shown that these instincts 

 may be reduced to elementary physico-chemical 

 laws, the assumption of design becomes super- 

 fluous." (Italics mine.) 



In the first place the " purposefulness " of the 

 movements of the planets is not affected in the 

 very least by the question of heliocentricism. 

 What the author is probably thinking of is an 

 exaggerated and obsolete teleology, but that is 

 not what seems to be the purport of the 

 passage. Let that pass. The main confusion 



