Lieber 



which constantly impress irreducible nonuniformities within the manifold. 

 These nonuniformities may be envisaged as active -stringent geometrical- 

 temporal constraints. 



The principle of maximum uniformity posits the constant evolution in nature 

 of hierarchies of increasing uniformity and of their attendant forces, which con- 

 stantly drive the space -time manifold towards states which are instantaneously 

 and maximally compatible and thus maximally uniform with the irreducible uni- 

 versals of the space -time manifold. 



These considerations are presented here as a foundation on which to base a 

 new thesis —viz., that the universal correspondence understood here to exist 

 between all forces and which is ascribed to their common origin in universals 

 seated in the space-time manifold which have given them order, and structure 

 and thereby irreversibly impart to them a constantly sustained nonuniformity — 

 means that all natural phenomena are unified by these forces (since they all 

 have a common source), phenomena which have been hitherto distinguished arti- 

 ficially as animate and inanimate. This means that the forces which, so to 

 speak, drive the life process correspond in all their essential features to the 

 forces which, for example, are designated by the symbol F in Newton's propo- 

 sitions — that they have a common ground and that they both originate from the 

 universals as aspects of a universal process of evolution which operates equiv- 

 alently in all natural phenomena, including those which we currently designate 

 as inanimate. The present interpretation, that all forces in nature are the viable 

 instruments of a process of evolution which extends and works equivalently in 

 every aspect of nature, forces upon us the conclusion that those aspects of na- 

 ture usually referred to as physical are fundamentally endowed with this uni- 

 versal evolutionary process, and therefore challenge us with the task of experi- 

 mentally identifying this process in the laboratory within the domain of classical 

 mechanical experience. For this purpose it is important to distinguish between 

 physical reality and physical theory, the latter of which is only a way of looking 

 at, describing, and conditioning particular aspects of physical reality. Indeed, 

 the laws of physical theory, which with exception of the second law of thermo- 

 dynamics, are distinguished by being mathematically formulated equations, are 

 also distinguished by the absence of concepts which have historical content and 

 which accordingly refer to historical development as an essential aspect of 

 physical reality. My point is, that physical reality is in both its fundamental 

 and comprehensive aspects essentially equivalent, and fully corresponds to as- 

 pects of reality which we currently refer to as biological. This total corre- 

 spondence between biological and physical reality which derives from the uni- 

 versal correspondence between all of the forces in nature, does not mean 

 however that biological reality is encompassed by physical theory as we pres- 

 ently know it. This complete correspondence does not therefore imply a reduc- 

 tion of biological reality to physical theory in the usual sense. Instead, the total 

 correspondence claimed here as existing between biological and physical reality 

 means that contemporary physical theory does not in fact describe or condition 

 certain fundamental aspects of physical reality, i.e., those aspects which cor- 

 respond to, and which are phenomenologically imminent in, biological phenom- 

 ena as known by ordinary human experience — aspects that concern historical 

 development and evolution. 



478 



