Evolution; Knowledge, Theory of; Philosophy and religion
present structure. Yet it is only in such description and such history
that the tendency to individuation is seen. Lastly, this
definition which Schelling gave of Life is untenable, not only because
it refers rather to the organism than to the actions going on in it; but
also because it wholly ignores that connexion between the organism and
the external world, on which Life depends. All organic processes,
physical and psychial, having for their object the maintenance of
certain relations with environing agencies and objects; it is impossible
that there should be a true definition of Life, in which the environment
is not named. Nevertheless, Schelling’s conception was not a
baseless one. Though not a truth, it was yet the adumbration of a truth.
In defining Life as the tendency to individuation, he had in view that
formation of a more compact, complete, and mutually-dependent whole,
which, as we have seen, is one characteristic of Evolution in general.
His error was, firstly, in regarding it as a characteristic of Life,
instead of a characteristic of living bodies, displayed, though in a
less degree, by other bodies; and, secondly, in regarding it as the sole
characteristic of such bodies. It remains only to add, that for
expressing this aspect of the process of Evolution, the word integration
is for several reasons preferable to the word individuation. Integration
is the true antithesis of differentiation; it has not that tacit
reference to living bodies which the word individuation cannot be wholly
freed from; it expresses the aggregative tendency not only as displayed
in the formation of more complete wholes, but also as displayed in the
consolidation of the several parts of which such wholes are made up; and
it has not the remotest teleological implication. In short, it simply
formulates in the most abstract manner, a wide induction untainted by
any hypothesis.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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