52 See “Nature,” 1891, p. 441.
53 The variation-increment of the selection theory ought to be a
differential. But in many cases it is not so. As for instance in
symmetrical correlated variation, &c. In the struggle for existence
it is usually not advantages of organisation which are decisive, but
the chance advantages of situation, though these have no “selective”
influence. The case of the tapeworm is illustrative.
His work, “Die organischen Regulationen, Vorbereitungen zu einer
Theorie des Lebens,” 1901, is a systematic survey of illustrations
of the “autonomy” of vital processes. In his “Analytischen Theorie
der organischen Entwicklung,” Leipzig, 1894, his special biological
(“ontogenetic”) views are still in process of development. But even
here his sharp rejection of Darwinism is complete (see VI., Par. 3,
on “the absurd assumption of a contingent character of
morphogenesis”). It is not for nothing that the book is dedicated to
Wigand and C. F. von Baer. He says that in regard to development we
must “picture to ourselves external agents acting as stimuli and
achieving transformations which have the character, not analysable
as to its causes, of being adapted to their end, that is, capable of
life.” Incomplete, but very instructive too, are his discussions on
the causal and the teleological outlook, the necessity for both, and
the impossibility of eliminating the latter from the study of
nature. In a series of subsequent works, Driesch has defined and
strengthened this position, finally reaching the declaration:
“Darwin belongs to history, just like that other curiosity of our
century, the Hegelian philosophy. Both are variations on the theme,
‘How to lead a whole generation by the nose!’ ” (“Biolog.
Zentralbl.” 1896, p. 16). We are concerned with Driesch more
particularly in Chapter IX.
54 See Driesch “Kritisches und Polemisches,” Biol. Zentrabl., 1902, p.
187, Note 2.
55 “Naturwissenschaftliche Wochenschrift,” xiv., p. 273.
56 See § 70 and subsequent sections. Take, for instance, the
sentences:—“Every production of material things and of their forms
must be interpreted as possible in terms of purely mechanical laws,”
and the contrast: “Some products of material nature cannot be
interpreted as possible in terms of purely mechanical laws.”
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