Three Approaches to : Part ll.

RUPERTSHELDRAKE

ReaI and Imaginary Vitabsm

Accounts of modern biology mention vitalism as if it were a kind of superstitionwhich has been swept away by the advanceof rational understanding. It is usually regarded asof merely historical interest, rather like the theory of phlogiston in the history of chemistry. Vitalists are portrayed as ludicrous figures clinging desparately to the belief that living organismsdo not obey the laws of physicsand chemistry, while the whole tide of science has flowed ever more 'discrediting' strongly against them. The of vitalism is usually said to have begun with the first synthesisof an organic chemical, urea, in the early nineteenth century, and to have been made more and more conclusive by every new discovery of physiology, genetics, biochemistry, biophysicsand molecular biology. This imaginary history forms an important part of the folk-lore of the mechanists. But in reality, vitalists did not deny that processcsin living organismstook place in accordancewith the laws of physics and chemistry. What they did think was that matter was organized in a special way in living organisms, which was different from that discoverable by ordinary chemistry. For example, J. C. Reil (1759-1813)held the view that "the most general attribute of the unique animal matter is a specialsort of crystallization".r But this is not entirely unlike the mechanistic idea that takes place by complex spontaneous processessomehow analogous to crystallization.A typical vitalist of a later generation,J. Mueller, in

Theona to Theory,1981, Vol. 14, pp.227.240 Publirhcdby 0049.3686/81/ 1403-0297t06.50/0 Cordon and Breach SciencePublirhcn Im. lgEl

27 2N RUPERTSHELORAKE THREEAPPROACHES TO BIOLOGY 81

Hans Driesch is to say, if only undisturbed development existed, and if taking away parts of our systemled to fragmental development"'IoBut' in Driesch'smajor theoretical work, The scienceand of the in many embryonic systems'removal of a part of the embryo is Organism, was published in l90g; a second fact, edition appeared in remaining tissues 1929. followed by a processof regulation, whereby the reorganizethemselves and go on to produce an adult organism of Drieschdid not deny that many featuresof living organismscould more or less normal form. The first clear experimental demon' be understood in physico-chemicalterms. He was well aware of the strarion of regulation was provided by Driesch himself, using findings of physiology and biochemistry, and of the potential for urchin. When one of the cells of a very young future discovery : "There are embryos of the sea many specific chemical compounds cell present embryo at the two-celled stage was destroyed, the remaining in the organism, belonging to the different classesof the gave rise to an organism smaller than normal, but complete' chemical system, and partly known in their constitution, partry iimilu.ly, small but complere organisms developed after the de' unknown. But those that are not yet known will probabry be known struction of any one, two or three of the cells of an embryo at the some day in the near future, and certainly there is no theoretical four-celled stage. comparable results were obtained with other impossibilityabout discoveringthe constirution of albumen Iprotein] as the newt. Many other examplesof regulation of and how to'make' it."5 He knew organisms,such that enzymes('ferments') catalysed And of ,.There ,"hole embryos or of embryonic organs were soon discovered' biochemical reactionsand could do so in test tubes : is no course the related phenomenon of regeneration, whereby damaged objection to our regarding almost all metabolic processesinside the organs of animals or plants could be restored, was already a organism as due to the intervention of ferments or catalytic well-establishedfact. materials, and the only difference between inorganic and organic According to the mechanistic theories of development of w. ferments is the very complicated character of the latter and. the very Roux and A. weissman, in voguein the late nineteenth century, the high degree of their specification."6 He knew that Mendelian genes germ cells contained a very complicated organized structure which were material entities located in the chromosomes, and that they disintegrated during development, different parts being passed on were probably chemical compounds of specific structure.? He to different cells in the processof nuclear division. In this way the thought that many aspecrsof metabolic regulation and physiological structure was supPosed to be broken up into its elements, each adaptation could be understood along physico-chemical liness and localized in a particular cell and determining its fate in the adult that there were in general "many processesin the organism organism. This theory resembled the old'preformationist' idea that which go on teleologically or purposefully on a fixed machine-like the complete organism was present in the egg in miniature; but basis".e His opinions on these subjects have been confirmed. by the instead of a complete miniature organism there was supposedto be subsequent advancesof physiology, biochemistry, and molecular a structure correspond,ingto all the parts of the organism. In order biology. obviously Driesch was unable to anticipate the detaik of to explain the facts of reproduction and regeneration, it was these discoveries, but he regarded them as possibre in and no way structure was preserved in incompatible nece$iary to suppose that the complete with vitalism. It is, of course, these very discoveries .germplasm' 'reserve the and in a plasm' from which regeneration which the mechanistic mythology treats as a conclusive refutation of his views. could originate. ,,it Roux atrempted to prove this theory experimentally. He killed In relation to morphogenesis,he considered that must be one of the two cells of a frog's egg after the first cleavage and granted that a machine, aswe understand the word, might very well watched the developmenr of the surviving cell. A typical half-embryo be the motive force of organogenesisin general, if only normal, that emerged, looking as if a fully formed embryo had been cut in half RUPERTSHELDRAKE THREEAPPROACHES TO BIOLOGY 7}9

lis Manual of Human Physiology(1833) admitted rhe existenceof enough basis for physiological and biochemical research. But this chemicals, such as urea, governed by chemical affinities in living was nor the casein the field of , where the difficulties of organisms,but thought there wasalso'something else' ruling in life, the mechanistic approach soon became apparent; it was mainly namely the organizing powers of morphogenesisand movement.2 among experimental embryologists that vitalism again came to be Similar but clearer views were held by the great chemist, Liebig, taken seriously. The most impoftant figpre in this new development who believed that although the chemist could already produce all was (186?-1941)who, like most pioneersin this field, sorts of organic substances,and would in future produce many was orginally inclined towards the mechanistic theory. He wrote of more, chemistry would never be in a position to create an eye or a the change in his views as follows: leaf. Besidesthe forcesof heat, chemical affinity and the formative force of cohesionand crystallization, "in living beings there is added The experiments of several years upon the power which organisms posscsr of yet a fourth cause which dominates the force of cohesion and regulatiln of form, and continued reflection on the collective results of expcriments physiotogy of development, upon which I had been working since l89l' combinesthe elementsin new forms so that they gain new qualities- on"the 'regulation' a togical analysis of the concepts of and'action', forms and qualities which not combined'wittr do appear except in the organism"s brought about an entire change of my opinioru and the gradual elaboration of a (1844). complete systemof Vitalism."a The common theme in the vitalist ideas of this period, and indeed of all periods, was that matter in living organismsis organized and and controlled by specifically vital factors which do not operate in the The neo-vitalist movement had many other supporters inorganic realm. had attributed the organizing function ro becamean imporrant force within biologa, although the mechanists were the psyche, or soul, of which he thought there were three levels : in remained in the majority. The first two decadesof this century 'nutritive') had plants, the vegetative (or soul, characteristic of each a period of great controversy,but by the 1930sthe mechanists species,controlling morphogenesis,maintenance and reproduction; achievedan almost complete dominance within the scientific estab' in animals, in addition to the vegetarivesoul, which had the same Iishment. Vitalism was treated as a heresy and every effort was 'sensitive') general role as in plants, there was an animal (or soul, made to stamp it out. Henceforth, almost no-one advocatedvitalism the concerned with sensationand movement, controlling the animal's explicitly; challenges to the mechanistic theory came only from behaviour. In man, over and abovethe vegetativeand animal souls, organismic philosophy. Many of these challenges were similar to was a higher soul, that of reasonor intellect. Neither in Aristotle's those presented by the vitalists; and defenders of orthodoxy were not guise' The system, nor in any of the subsequentvitalist theories, was it ever slow to seethe organismic philosophy as vitalism in a new to denied that living organismswere material, that rhey depended on organismic theoreticians, on the other hand, found it necessary food and the physical environment, etc.; these theories simply disclaim any close affinity with vitalism. They claimed to have 'transcended' stated, in one form or another, that in living organismsmatter was the vitalist-mechanistdispute. organized by special vital factors or forces. However it was never Although vitalism is totally out of fashion, it seems worth possibleto say exactly what these organizing factors were or how considering what the neo-vitalists actually said. In the following they worked. They were merely given names ('vis vitalis', 'vis sections, some of the ideas of the two most prominent, Driesch 'nisus essentialis', formativus', etc.) and discussedin general terns. himself, and the French philosopherHenri Bergson(1859'1941) are Such vague ideaswere of little useto experimental scientists,and briefly summarized and discussed.Although their most important had relatively little influence on biologists in the latter parr of the books were written over seventy yeani ago, they are still extra' nineteenth century. The mechanistic theory provided an adequate ordinarily interesting and contain insights of great originality. -a.i B ':r:': A2 RUPERTSHELORAKE THREEAPPROACHES TO BIOLOGY i.

character- with a razor. This seemed capable of carrying out to be a proof of his theory. But Driesch,s machine'like material structure cannot give rise to any subsequent discovery of embryonic reguration In the hologram in the sea urchin isdc functions. laser' showed that this theory ";-;;;, part of a set'up including a courd not be correct. Further research by itself, Uot o"tv-*-tt-* it is image whole' say the laser' is showed that although the embryos of some groups If of 'ni' functional 'mosaics' of animals mirrors, etc. n"'i regulate and behaveas in which " parts are unable to the fate of the celrsis fixed, as Roux had destroyed, obviously the remaining found with the frog, in other groups the embryos regulate after produce a new laser' disturbances. 'mosaic' '- the power of regulation But even embryos were found machines exist which h:ave to regulate wiit. rro actual be thought if they were disturbed at a .reg- removal of parts' it might sufficientiy ."rly stage, and in or regeneration atter-arbit"t' ulatory'embryos one day be invented' the tissueswould not regurate if physical o"it*it"i machines could they were dam- that such And' so far' a late stage; the differences they cannot even be conceived' :9"1 ", were of degree and not of But Driesch argrred that but Klnc. This is a powerful argument' have ,ro, U"t" to"ttiuta' they that they' could be The fact of regulation definitivery refuted this particurar al*ays escape by saying tlpe of mechanists could be a poor mechanistic theory. Development ,epigenetic,: future' However' this would was thoroughly it conceived at some'i-" i" the involved the appearance of new structures and of a aiu.nity of lazY and evasive' form defence, theory was very which were not already organized, either of the mechanistic in a miniature animal Driesch's second differ' inside the egg, or in a complicated "fot"tiot' machine' typically structure corresponding to it. simple : no complicJpf'v'ito-chemical parts The only could be divided into remaining type of mechanistic theory of d"u"tp*.r* three dimensions of space, ent in the in reproduction : would have to supposethat it could be explained ;;;i;t' Yet this is what happens in terms of com- which still remain give rise to plicated physicaland detached from it and chemical interactionsbetween the parts of the parts of a parent otr"ti* become embryo. Drieschconsidered physico'chemical machine that the fact of regulatior,-"d. any such organir*r. N-o self'reproducing new that it could be machine-like system inconceivable, because .machine' mechanis$ were to the would actually exists' If "'g"t would have to remain a whole resemble a li"ing organism it after the arbitrary removal of some of its conceived in principle, then to parts' He argued that no such physico-chemical regulation' such a phvsico-chemical machine is possible., also have to have t';;;;;;tf It might be thought that the development of computen imagination wirh systemdefies behaviour and complicated programmes including *"' U""a on the analysis of feedback loops provide counter. His third ,"fo'"iioi" of examples of regulations and responses on the basis by machines, unknown to Driesch. But his learning, i., '"r'iJin" stimuli argument holds good simple parts' blt wholes' for computers too : no computer exists in ."rrr,or'i. into ":.: experience "r,alysed machine-like systems which the whole can be automaticalry restored of all these arguments is that after the arbitrary The essence possessthe destruction of parts, of parts and do not e.g. the smashingof a[ the memory discsor the composed of l"-"tot'"t' are by livins organisms' ripping out of parts of the circuitry at random. 'wholeness'-ti"i which are exhibited 'back'up' Even a computer properties of theory with circuits refutations of the mechanistic and dupricated parts could not survive Driesch .o.,,iAt"a these arbitrary damage to part laws. of nhft:t-^l^chemistrv' any of the machine, and certainly could proved that, in to the not regenerate "aaiiio" in living organisms' He the missing structures. The only other item factor must be operating of another causal organized modern technology which might and t"ggtsttd that it seem relevant is a hologram, from called this factor {ntelechy" which pieces and controlled can be removed but which can stilr give processesduring -otit'ostttesis' rise to a physico-chemical The genes complete three-dimensionalimage. its influence on the brain' But the image produced in thin the actions of air from a hologram is not ""i"i"t"hrough the material rneortlof morphogenesis I by any stretch of the imagination a were responsiblefor providing N4 RUPERTSHELORAKE THREEAPPROACHES TO BIOLOGY

- the cheryricars to be ordered * but the be im' ordering itserf was brought not be fully determinate, since it would otherwise about bv entelechv. similarly, could ;i; ;.*ous sysrem provided entelechy to act upon them' He meansfor action, the possible for the non-energetic but entelechyorganized the microphysical activity of the brain, th.r"fo.. concluded that, at least in living organisms' pianistplavs upon by mechanical causality' al- ffiffiTljil'T::l'' "'.l oi*,. clearty, fro..*., were not fully determined " obeyed statistical orbydama".*;:i:il:;tH.ff:1i:::,,:::'.;;;i::,ffithough, on average, physico-chemical changes acted by affecting the detailed in terms of genes i; laws. He suggested ihtt ."ttt"chy and nerves. rn. -.at 'suspending' them and of a piano are not a of microphysical processes' by sufficient explanation for "nisms t;iming the -"rif oi"r.d on it, arthough whenever required for its purposes: a necessarymeans..Damage they are ,eleasirrg them from suspension to the fiarro, e.g. by severing the strings, . some of becoming is to be regarded ar affects the musi. This faculty of a temporary suspensionof inorganic ",rri.itt.- tiaracteristic of-entelechy ' ' ' Entelechy' according doe,not p.ou" ,r,", the most essential orr,oroiii"r 'obstacle' ,r,.-*-i" ir;ffi:illH:l"il, kind of to happening ' ' ' for of the piano. ,Tjli!;rr"T,:l: to our view, is quite ,rt"fiit io remove any sucharemovalwould*e"i..enerSy,andentelechyisnon.energetic'Weonly Entelechy is a what it has risef prevented from Greek word whose derivation (en-teros) admit that entelechy -;;;;.; i,ito somerhing indicates ".t,r"lity which bearsthe actuality, what it has suspendedhitherto''' end in itseli; it conrains the goal which a process towards under it, i. iir".,.a. pathway "or,tror Thus if the normal ThisseemedtobethegTeatestweaknessofDriesch'ssystem.To of deveropmentis disturbed, determinism the samegoal may be reached at that time, any interference with physical in a differenr wav' a phenome"." scientists ;;; Driesch Driesch's idea seemed impossible in He considered terms equifinarity. was unthinkable, and so that deveropmen, behaviour control were under rhe principle. of a hierarchy of enterechies,""i- to the which were all .,iii-"r"rv ironic that at the time when vitalism seemed derived from' and It is surely subordinatea ,o,-,rr. overat finally discredited' undreamt of organi5sl.lt enterechy of the majority of biologiststo have been As in any hierarchical system, Heisenberg deduced the such as an army, changes were occurring within physics' mistakes were possible and .rrt.l."hiq might behave ,stupidly,, principle in 192?; it soon became clear that the they do in cases as unceituirrty ofsuper_regeneradon, when events could be produced'rt 'rtupiditi.r' a superfluous organ is positions, energies and timings of microphysical But such an eminent d; ;;, d.isprove the exisrence only in terms of probabilities' By 1928' entelechyany more of predicted than milita.t .*"lr disprove wasable to speculatethat the mind intelligent that soldiers are physicist,Sir Arthur Eddington, beings. of quantum irrfl.."rr.., the body by affecting the configuration Driesch described entelechy ,intensive probability of as an manifoldness,, the train thro,rgh a causaleffect on the non-spatial causal a eventswithin factor which nevertheless belies i$ name' probability can be emphasized i"i, ,o"ie. He their occurrence : "Unless it that it was a natural (as opposed ""r.a,metaphysical, 'mystical') to a or modifiedinwayswhichordinaryphysicalentitieswouldnotadmit factor which acted on oitri'"'o-"rr.mical processes.It a-fgrm of energy, was of'"15 ,not and its dii not contradict law the second Comparableideashavebeenproposedbytheneurophysiologist of thermodynamics or the ".rio' law .rk*"tion of energy. Then who summarized his hypothesis as follows: how did it work? "f Sir John Eccles, Driesch was writing during the The.will,modifiesthespatio-temporalactivityoftheneuronalnetworkbyexerting era of classical phpics, when it was Seneraty considered- spatio.tempora|.fieldsofi,'flu",'..'thatbecomeeffectivethroughthisunique that at physicar pro.L., ,.r.' deterministic, r.,u, detectorfunctionoftheactivecerebralcortex.Itwillbenotedthatthe.will'orin order to in principle 'mind spatio-temporal patterned character in terms of influence' has itself some energy, momentum, etc. "o-pt.ity-predictable operative effectiveness'16 But he thought that physic"t pro..*, allow it this RUPERTSHELDRAKE 87 THREEAPPROACHES TO BIOLOGY

More recentry' a number of simirar properties of but more detailed proposars be fully explained in terrns of the have been made b.vE. that a radio set can H. w"ik;;,,;'"nd certain come from the loudspeaker Needlessto other physicists.r" its physical components' The voicesthat say,-these,rrrr.rri-orr entirely a are very controversial; but within the radio set and to be mere fact that thev are possibre the s€em to be produced iJi.",", how much physics changes within the wires' trans- changed since Driesch's has product of microscopic mechanical dav. so Driesch,s certain components very radical, ideas still seem etc. The artisan finds that if he removes it is no longer possible"r,rrlrsl, ir,orr, the to dir-i* them a priorion are no longer produced (say all those on grounds that physical processes the ofthe set, certain voices i,rtt, determinate. voices were actually located "r. long-wave band). He concludes that the he removed' In fact' of course' they come within the components of certain components from various radio stations; the removal received by the set' The radio Bergson's most merely prevents them from being important books were detect them' Creatiae Matter and Mem,ory and, are still there even if the set cannot Eaolution, first publis'ed"(-i' broadcasts 'tuned' to fr.rr.t) in lg96 act upon the brain when it is respectivery'The former and lg0' Similarly, memories can is about tt i"t.tio. to certain regions of the body' betweenthe mind and but they are not stored inside it' Damage and the of consciousness." them, Bergson accepted types of memory from acting' but this a closeconnection that the brain prevents certain b.rrr..,'.otes of consciousness physico-chemical structures ;H,"* and the does not prove that the memories are orthodox view of the brain localized within the nervous tissue' The But there is also a closr great misunderstanding as that and its functions represents as a shapeoft:i:;*i;ilpil.;{l:i{::i:ii',FT.;iltltH,ti:::,:,T:1,,t*llT; the nail gives the the involvedinthinkingthatradiosetscontainvoicesandmusic'orthat *".o.9f coat, oi rrr."ny-*"y people whose images appear L..l:ii::ffi:'f correspondsto it? No television sets contain the miniature ::;'r"J.'.',1iffi*,X.lip"'r.r,i."rr".,;;;;;il;cerebrarvLrwccrr rne two states, psychical upon the screen. logical.Ie and psycho- was' if it was not inside Bergson did not explain where memgry In Driesch's system memory Having rejectedthe,mechanistic the brain, or how it acted on the brain' theory, Bergsoncame But this hardly of astonishing to a number regarded on or through entelechy'20 conclusio.rr, o.rly ;'# was of which need.be mentioned. ", ""ti"s so little could be said about the nature here: memory is not material, solved the problem:;i;t" and is not stored physically chemically within or the brain; ,fr. Ur"i" ,, .reservoir entelechY. ,,o, of images,. Bergson argued that purposeful strucilres At first sight this-idea seems " ln Creatiae Eaolution, o"ia.-i-o.ssibre. The mechanistic 1"nt evolved mechanistically simply theory has come to be taken such as the eye could i;r;;;;, and it is difficutt "ot and natural selection' one's-selffrom its presuppositions. ro free through a combination of random mutation yet Bergson,s inheritance of from being arguments are far u f-u-",.fian explanation in terms of an 'rogicar or absurd. He shows He rejected paradoxes a wayout of the insorubre alsodismissed the idea that associatedwith acquired.hur".t"rirtic', and a -..hu;;;i;view of consciousness, fixed transcendent providesthe and proceeds towards a goal and is directed by some outlines of a totally *_ ,rrid.rrtanding of some of thought that the current of life' flowing perennial problems of ph'osophy. the plan or design. InstJad, he 'vital rhe raaical difference between was the result of an original his ideasand those orttroao*-v;;.;'e.ihaos from generation to g""tt"tio"' be illustrated sustainedright along the of an analogy. "f by means impetus', the'6lan vital" "This impetus' which it gets divided' is the fundamental Imagine once again an ingenious lines of evolution among artisan who knows nothing of those that are regularly passedon' about electricity or the p.irr.i"pt., causeof uuri"tiorrr, tt it"" J;lrr, but who is In general' when species convinced that accumulate and create new species' TO BIOLOGY 2$} RUPERTSHELDRAKE THREEAPPROACHES

have begun on with the job of to diverge from a common biologists get stock, they accentuatetheir problems which -cou.ld of the divergence as they progress chemical perfectlv Jtu ott the basis in evolution. yet, in certain thev tt"ti'- iittt points, they definite studyrng; and incompatible may evolve identically; i' vitalism-was radically f".r, they must do so if the theory' it'i'afv' hypothesisof a common impetus mechanistic be accepted.,,zrThus Bergson J;terminism of classical Phv'kl' been this rather obscure used ;;;; course' that it has concept to account for evorutionary ti;;i;;"t# it'. for apparentry creativity, The orthod". "j has advanced' In directed lines of evol.,ior, biology 1'ortrrogenesis,)and for the ever less;;; Monod : evolution of very sim'ar organs rendered "'It"r'""istic biolosist' Jacques i" ;; or resscrosely *i; groups of the *n"""tf"i rnottt"t"' have of organisms' He though, the words thelasr two decades ,rt", ,rrirl]-. i''p.,,rs ..Developmerr,, -oi"curar biology-ouer onry revealeditself not ir, leaving little in the evorution of form, u", tl *: *v'tt'ioo'' in the .uotutio' oiirrr,irr.t, subjectivitv: and in the evolution of "rr" singularlv tut tr" field of intellig"rr".. B" tracing the """o*to-ti"t-;;;"i"t;ffi" ;;;;'il"tio" seeingin latter, and by open to the field not true' consider terms of a generaltheory of life, thSlt i"* possible he hoped that it would be that of .or,r.ioo""ll'il"il'T,;;ut about to arrive at a deeper ,rr,i.r*".raing not based o" speculations of knowredge itself. He svstem' ;t;;; "tv biologv did not claim to have solved Driesch's discoveries of molecular ,t ,,.", plobrems he raised; in the fi;;i;;' The was attempting..to " rather, he subjectivitv Morphogenesis' which define the method and bv him' some to permit a glimpse, on were, in general ,"r;,;;;;n"t1a be explained essentialpoints, of the possibility rt"' to of its application.,,2? to t'i' as was centrar "'gument' "oi--f"gunare as mysterious and regeneration and The mechanistic"ilv; "J"iion J;J;" [ght on instinct Eclipse of Vitatism *.,', '""'"tl'i";;i;;i", everthev ot-t-ow hasbeen discovered' The theories learning;,,o pr.'itJ'"tiJ'iJt*i' rather of Driesch, Bergsonand half a ceyurv has strengthened' the other neo-vitalistswere far In fact, tht p"t'"gt of out' has failed' from complete: the tt'"' r"reJtni'tic biologv than weake"ta' tit-ui-ttii" the vitalists ro rep ra ce,n. _..n"ii;[Tii::,H: tt"ttrt thott where :l: ::T].T$:; enorrnousH;;';; """t not because svsremof biorogv' This new # r* despite been superseded'it is biorogv wourd have incruded physico- f"il' ii tii"il'- has the chemical investigations saidit would iiol'"t' of of i.r"iir-r, but would aimed to -living also have of anvof theu*i#nJ"i-'"aq Organicisml:t-5:"5 is more find out in asmuch a"t"it .vital -ti"t philosonhv' exactly what the development tht;;;"i'rnit entire atomrstrc facror' was and how it worked;it "r"possible "f it challenges the *or.lil"u. encouraged ,r'"" uit"iii"i'i" is only investigation which all lines of radical theory of life might h"". il;; in this quest, which tt" -tti"iistic ruling rarher than philosophv of approach not out any of th ""t""'-of advocate a non-reductionist andDriescn.,._*'T,'i,xl,Li:t'"irT:.3il,11i,i":,i:r:HJJone aspect' Organicists as well' il;ttttics and chemistry Research onlv to biology' (in l915 and l926-22 ,.rp.oir.fyl. But the vitarist revorution at reasrthree reasons.First of all, the concepts of vitalis-"uor,.j,}o, ,n.r. ,., u"*., and raised Notes problems which many p' 99' Macmillan' could nor be solved immediately. ond' Theory of Vitalism' true This has been in H' Driesch : Hitory of most new systemsin science l. Quoted l from the time of copernicus London (1914)' onwards' and is arwalrs a disadvantagei' trr. face 2. ibid, P' t14' onhodoxy. of an established Secondly, the vitalist ial"r-l 3. ibid, P' 119' rgg"rted no new types (second edition)' experiment; there seemed of 4. ibid, P' r77' of the Otganism to be nothi.raifr", could : The Science ond'Philosofhy them be done to test 5. H. Driesch in the laboratory. By contrast, "' London (1929)' i th".r. *"re countless physico- P.'zgi-' srack' L 1\ 2N RUPERTSHELDRAKE

6. ibid (first edition, 1908), Vol. I, p. 203. t. ibid (secondedition), pp. 152-154,295. 8. ibid, pp. 135,291. 9. ibid, p. 246. 10. ibid, p. 103. 'wholes' ll. Some simple inorganic systemsremain after the removal of parts; for example the parts of a magnet rernain whole magnets; and a drop of water split into two gives two whole drops. But these systemsare not characteristi- I cally different in three dimensions of space: a magnet is effectively two dimensional, and a drop of water is radially symmetrical. To exclude such cases Driesch qualified his statement as follows: no complicated physico- I chemical machine with a structure that differs characteristicallyin the three dimensionsof spacecan remain a whole after the arbitrary removal of parts. 12. The Scienceand Philosophy of the Oryanism (secondedition), p.246. 13.ibid, p. 266. 14. ibid, p. 262. 15. A. Eddington: The Nature of the Physical World, p. 302. Dent, London (l 955). 16. J. C. Eccles: Th.e Neurofhysiological Basisof Mind. Oxford University Press, Oxford (1953). 17. E. H. Walker: Foundations of paraphysical and parapsychological pheno- mena. In: Qu.antttn Physics and (ed. L. Otera). Para- psychologyFoundation, New York (1975). 18. E.g.J. H. M. Whiteman: ParapsychologyandPhysics. ln: Handbookof Paro- psychologl (ed. B. B. Wolman). Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York (1977). 19. H. Bergson:Matter and Memory, p. xv. Allen and Unwin, London (l9ll). 20. The Scienceand Philosophy of the Organism (secondedition), pp. 229-230. 21. H. Bergson:Creatiae Ewlution, pp. 92-93.Macmillan, London (l9ll). 22. ibid, p. xiv. 23. J. Monod: Chance and. Necessity,p. 37. Collins, London (1572). I I