No. 559] DOCTRINES HELD AS VITALISM 399 



ing a living body," one conld not deduce the action of 

 the living l KH ly. 



Now, the configurations in living things are either the 

 same as those in the non-living or they are different. If 

 they, and all other conditions, are the same, and yet we 

 get different results from them, then the uniformity of 

 nature fails, and we drop into indeterminism. On the 

 other hand, if they are different, then according to pre- 

 cisely the principles and practise of inorganic science, 

 this different configuration is a matter whose conse- 

 quences are to be learned only by experience. After it 

 has been learned by experience it is a datum to be em- 

 ployed in prediction, exactly as are the corresponding 

 data of inorganic science. The process of acquiring and 

 using the knowledge is the same as that employed 

 throughout the rest of science. To divide science into 

 two divisions because the processes are the same in the 

 two appears contrary to reason. 



29. The thing that would show that the occurrences 

 proceed on different principles in the two cases would be 

 to discover that the same combinations acted differently 

 in the two fields, for the fact that things in one configu- 

 ration do not behave as they do in another is illustrated 

 thoroiighout inorganic science. The arguments for vital- 

 ism appear to lead, if maintained in a form such as to 

 show a real difference in principle between living and 

 non-living, almost always thus directly to indeterminism. 



30. The strict mechanical theory holds that when we 

 have gained an acquaintance with the elementary par- 

 ticles and with certain of the laws of their movements, 



principle everything that may occur, so that anything 

 else which occurs can be expressed in terms of what we 

 have already discovered. Thus, if we could be informed 

 of the nature of the elementary particles and of their 

 configuration in a living body, we could predict its action 

 without acquiring further empirical knowledge. 



31. But suppose that we discovered and could demon- 



