LIFE FROM THE BIOLOGIST'S STANDPOINT 177 



As long as the mind of the interpreter is human, the whole truth of 

 a complex natural object or proposition can never be ascertained from 

 knowledge of its components alone. Or varying this statement, you 

 can never give a full account of any whole in terms of its elements. 



In spite of the ocean and the stars as illustrating the truth thus 

 formulated, the statement sounds dogmatic. We must examine it 

 farther. 



The presumption that biological phenomena may be adequately 

 treated in terms of chemistry and physics takes care of itself so far as 

 strict science is concerned, since its utter futility becomes apparent 

 almost immediately it is put to rigid experimental test. For one thing, 

 it results in constant effort to extend generalizations far beyond where 

 later study will permit them to stand. It leads inevitably to a forcing 

 of evidence, which process sooner or later comes to grief. 



One aspect of this forcing is almost certain betrayal into an illegiti- 

 mate use of the analogical mode of reasoning. For instance, an analogy 

 is often drawn between the so-called reversed actions in chemistry, and 

 what is spoken of as a return of certain animals — certain worms — to 

 the egg state. As a matter of fact the earlier speaker who drew this 

 analogy might have used the " second-childhood " of the old man as well 

 as the supposed second egg state of the worm. One has as much in 

 common as the other with the chemical process for which correspond- 

 ence was claimed. 



You must not understand by this that I condemn, wholly, com- 

 parison and analogy in reasoning. On the contrary, I attach great 

 importance to these, as would become clear were this discussion to be 

 carried into regions where it is not possible for it to go now. In so 

 far as there is resemblance between reversed chemical action and grow- 

 ing old, the fact is illuminating, and to have discovered it is good. 

 My criticism is directed not against pointing out the resemblance, but 

 against not pointing out the difference at the same time, thus leaving 

 the inference that one process accounts for or explains the other. 



It is in its wider bearings, its bearings beyond strict specialties 

 in science, that the influence of the theory of physical-chemical ade- 

 quacy in the treatment of life phenomena is most unfortunate. Only 

 when regarded from this larger standpoint does its withering effect 

 on the scientific spirit and method generally, and on man's attitude 

 toward nature, become apparent. 



The subject is, according to my view, so vital that I must ask you 

 to look into it more closely. This we can not do without running a 

 little into what these walls are accustomed to hear about under the 

 term theory of knowledge, or epistemology. Most of us would agree 

 that we have to use both our senses and our minds in science. Most 

 would agree too that that workman is the most efficient who uses his 

 instruments the most intelligently — who is not a mere rule-of- thumb 



