xii CONTENTS 



expressing the common principle of all acts of inference, so far as 

 they are mutually consistent. (6) Rationality is the impulse to the 

 / formation of a system of parts, which are mutually necessary, (7) 

 and practical rationality is the impulse to the establishment of a 

 similar system in the world of feeling. - Pp. 250-280 



CHAPTER III 



THE PAST AND THE FUTURE 



\J 



(i) Rational development is founded upon the Real order, but to 

 estimate its future we must examine its conditions. (2) The 

 general condition is that harmony is a cause of success, (3) while 

 the extension of conscious correlation is the condition of complete 

 harmony. (4) But we cannot tell how far harmony can be 

 developed unless we can determine whether Mind is a true cause 

 of growth, and how it is related to other causes affecting the life of 

 man. This necessitates an inquiry into the nature of causation. 



Pp. 281-294 



CHAPTER IV 



MECHANISM AND TELEOLOGY 



(i) To explain a thing may be to refer it (ideologically) to its place in 

 a system which, as a whole, has value, (2) or (mechanically) to its 

 immediate antecedent in indifference to any system. The full 

 explanation of a machine involves both kinds of explanation. (3) 

 In a machine, the system pre-supposes an external agent. In an 

 organic whole the systematic principle is inherent in the nature of 

 the parts. (4) The living being is comparable to a machine, 

 devised with the purpose of self-maintenance, (5) but when 7 closely 

 examined, is seen to diverge from this type in that the action of the 

 parts is constantly adapted to the needs of the whole. (6) Where 

 this adaptation proceeds from the nature cfi the parts as such, i.e. 

 where the action of each part is conditioned by its effect on the 

 whole, we have a true organism. (7) An organic whole is there- 

 fore like a machine in being purposive, though unlike it in that its 

 purpose is within. (8) A purposive process is one determined by 

 its tendency to produce a certain result, (9) purpose itself being an 

 act determined in its character by that which it tends to bring 

 about. As such it differs fundamentally from a mechanical cause. 

 (10) Ultimately all purposive systems are of the organic type. 

 How far we may explain collocations by referring them to such 

 systems has still to be discussed, (n) but on inductive grounds, we 

 must take intelligent action as truly purposive, and not resolvable 

 into mechanical laws. (12) In a less developed form the teleo- 

 logical principle explains all types of genuine organic activity. 



Pp. 295-330 



