iv MECHANISM AND TELEOLOGY 313 



result itself or determined by its own character as yielding 

 that result. Observe, further, that if the action of each 

 part is conditioned by its results, the result is equally 

 conditioned by that action, and thus there is in teleological 

 action an organic relation, not merely between the contem- 

 poraneous activity of parts, but in the succession of phases. 

 The causes together determine the effect, while it is its 

 bearing on the effect that determines each of the causes. 



8 . To this account objections may be taken which we will 

 examine without delay. But let us first observe the result 

 to which we have been led. To explain an event or a 

 process, we have found, may mean two things. First, it 

 may be to find for it an antecedent event or process which 

 passes into it, proceeding without any reference to con- 

 comitant processes or events. This is the mechanical cause. 

 Secondly, it may be to find for the event and this will mean 

 for the entire mechanical process which hangs together an 

 explanation of its existence here and now, a reason why 

 it holds its place in this particular collocation. Explanation 

 on these lines cannot be mechanical, but may be teleological, 

 i.e. may be effected by referring the collocation as a whole to 

 a purpose. But it has appeared that there are two forms in 

 which purpose may operate. If the parts of the configuration 

 bear no necessary relation to one another, the configuration, 

 if it serves a purpose at all, must be regarded as something 

 imposed on them by a purposive mind. We have a machine 

 with an intelligent creator as its antecedent cause standing 

 outside it. If, on the other hand, the parts are each such 

 as to contribute to the maintenance and growth of the whole, 

 while, conversely, they could only come into being in 

 relation to each other, we have an organic whole. The 

 definition of the organic whole would then be, that in it 

 each part is determined in its existence and its behaviour 

 by the effect of its action on the whole. The organic whole 

 would then, as such, be teleological, but the operative 

 purpose would be within it, dominating each part. Such 

 a whole would correspond to the ethical conception of a 

 harmonious system. Thus, to explain a collocation other- 

 wise than by referring it to an antecedent collocation is to 



