352 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XLYI1 



rule (at least in biology), the previous occurrence of a 

 great number of conditions, alteration of any of which 

 would change the result. Consider, for example, what an 

 infinity of conditions must be fulfilled for the produc- 

 tion of the brown color of a human skin or of a human 

 eye; or for the swimming of an organism toward a 

 window. Hence many minds revolt against the asserta- 

 tion that any particular thing x (a chromosome; a nu- 

 cleus; a single physical agent, such as light) is the de- 

 terminer or the cause for this result :— f or it takes much 

 more than the " determiner " to produce it. But other 

 minds, apparently equally sane, persist in speaking of 

 particular determiners or causes for exactly such cases. 

 The difference is due neither to stupidity on one part or 

 the other, nor to disagreement as to the experimental 

 situation, but to a different conception of what is im- 

 plied experimentally by " determiner" or 1 'cause." One 

 party thinks, when speaking of determination, of every- 

 thing necessary in order that the given result shall be 

 produced; so that "a determiner" would to him mean 

 something supplying all these required conditions. The 

 other means by a determiner that tvhich brings about the 

 difference between a case that gives this particular re- 

 sult, and another which does not. The first view insists 

 that many things are necessary in order to produce the 

 result; the second insists that if the ' 'determiner" x is 

 altered, the result is altered or done away with. Both 

 are correct. 



If one is seeking to understand, rather than to criticize 

 or confute, the solution of the apparent disagreement 

 lies in clearly distinguishing these two things, and in 

 noting the meaning which underlies the proposition ex- 

 amined. The difference between a person with brown 

 eyes and a similar person with eyes not brown may be de- 

 cided or determined by something which by no means 

 supplies all the conditions necessary for the production 

 of the brown color. It takes an entire state to go to war, 

 but a very small difference in the conditions may deter- 



