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LIFE AND MECHANISM 109

which flow from the use of one instead of two con-
ceptual shorthands, but it would not * explain' life
any more than the law of gravitation explains the
elliptic path of a planet."

"Atom" and "molecule" and the rest are scientific
concepts, not phenomenal existences, therefore even
if the physicist's formulas should fit vital phenomena
—which they seem very far from doing—there would
be no explanation forthcoming, for "mechanism does
not explain anything."

Thus, like Spencer, we find the secret of the
organism irresoluble in terms of lower categories.
But we differ from him inasmuch as we believe that
this admission is fatal to his formula of evolution, to
his definition of life, and to the coherence of his
Synthetic Philosophy.



	LIFE AND MECHANISM 109 which flow from the use of one instead of two con- ceptual shorthands, but it would not * explain' life any more than the law of gravitation explains the elliptic path of a planet." "Atom" and "molecule" and the rest are scientific concepts, not phenomenal existences, therefore even if the physicist's formulas should fit vital phenomena —which they seem very far from doing—there would be no explanation forthcoming, for "mechanism does not explain anything." Thus, like Spencer, we find the secret of the organism irresoluble in terms of lower categories. But we differ from him inasmuch as we believe that this admission is fatal to his formula of evolution, to his definition of life, and to the coherence of his Synthetic Philosophy.