Chapter I: Page

THE CONCEPTUAL WORLD 1

_Argument._--The conscious organism is one that acts. Its
consciousness of an external world is not simply the result of
the stimuli made by that world on its organs of sense, for it becomes
fully aware only of those stimuli which result in deliberated bodily
activity. This awareness of an outer world on which it acts is the
perception of the organism. Its consciousness is an intensive
multiplicity. This multiplicity is arbitrarily dissociated, for
convenience’ sake, by the mental organisation, which confers extension
and magnitude and succession on those aspects of consciousness
which it arbitrarily dissociates from each other. Our notion of
space is an intuitive one and depends on our modes of bodily
exertion. Our notions of motion and continuity are also intuitive
ones, and they cannot be represented intellectually, but we can
approximate to them by the methods of the infinitesimal calculus.
Mathematical time is only a series of standard events which punctuate
our duration. Duration is the accumulated existence and
experience of the organism. We cannot prove intellectually that
there is a world external to our consciousness, but that this world
exists is a conviction intuitively held.

CHAPTER II

THE ORGANISM AS A MECHANISM 49

_Argument._--If the organism is a physico-chemical mechanism its
activities must conform to the two principles of energetics: the law
of conservation of energy and matter, and the law of entropy-increase.
They conform strictly to the law of conservation.
The law of the degradation of energy is true of our experience
of inorganic nature, but we can show that it cannot be universally
true. Inorganic processes are irreversible ones, and they proceed
in one direction only, and in them energy is degraded. Organic
processes, that is, the processes carried on in the generalised
organism, are irreversible; or, at least, there is a tendency for
them to be carried on without necessary dissipation of energy.

CHAPTER III

THE ACTIVITIES OF THE ORGANISM 83

_Argument._--If the organism is investigated by the methods of
physical and chemical science, nothing but physico-chemical
activities can be discovered. This is necessarily the case, since
methods which yield physico-chemical results only are employed.
The physiologist makes an analysis of the activities of the organism,
and he reduces these activities to certain categories; although all
attempts completely to describe the functioning of the organism
solely in terms of physical and chemical reactions fail. In addition
to the reactions which make up the functioning of an organ or
organ-system, there is direction and co-ordination of these reactions.
The individual physico-chemical reactions which occur in the
functioning of the organism are integrated, and life is not merely
these reactions, but also their integration.