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THE AMEBIC AN NATURALIST [Vol. XL VII 



40. The inquiry remains as to the grounds for this 

 proper form of vitalism, based on the active interven- 

 tion of a non-perceptual agent, and involving experi- 

 mental indeterminism. Many doctrines of this char- 

 acter appear as mere general reflections, with no attempt 

 at precise formulation of grounds and consequences ; to 

 the critic they are intangible. Driesch deserves the 

 gratitude of all students of such matters for working 

 out in full such a doctrine ; for showing us whither such 

 a road leads. The complex hierarchy of non-corporeal 

 entities at which Driesch arrives, and which appears so 

 fantastic to some critics, is the logical result of this full 

 working out; persons who hold to the intervention of a 

 non-perceptual agent, but refuse to draw the further 

 consequences of such a doctrine, have no just ground 

 for criticism until they have shown how such interven- 

 tion can intelligibly produce the results it does without 

 such a system as Driesch sets forth. 



41. With the details of that system we shall not deal, 

 but examine only the basis for the fundamental assump- 

 tion. What ground is there for supposing that situations 

 do occur which involve experimental indeterminism, 

 and consequently the activity of a non-perceptual agent? 



42. The concrete grounds which Driesch sets forth 

 may be summarized as follows, taking the argument 

 from development as a type. Driesch holds (1) that in 

 order that what is produced should be determined by 

 physical factors, it can be demonstrated that the egg 

 would have to be a complex machine, with 'typical' di- 

 versities in the three directions of space, these diversi- 

 ties being necessary for the production of organisms dif- 

 ferentiated in the three directions of space; (2) that a 

 machine with such necessary typical diversities can not 

 be divided in any plane you please and the pieces con- 

 tinue to act as did the whole machine (for the pieces 

 would of course lack some of the necessary typical dif- 

 ferentiations). Therefore (3) what the egg produces 

 can not be determined (alone) by physical diversities in 



