Let us now see whether we can find the same problem of the “whole” elsewhere, and perhaps in more explicit and less hypothetical form. Let us see whether our analytical theory of development is in fact as complete as it seemed to be, whether there are no gaps left in it which will have to be filled up.
3. The Problem of Morphogenetic Localisation
α. THE THEORY OF THE HARMONIOUS-EQUIPOTENTIAL SYSTEM
FIRST PROOF OF THE AUTONOMY OF LIFE
We have come to the central point of the first part of these lectures; we shall try in this chapter to decide a question which is to give life its place in Nature, and biology its place in the system of sciences. One of the foundation stones is to be laid upon which our future philosophy of the organism will rest.
The General Problem
Our analytical theory of morphogenesis has been founded upon three elementary concepts: the prospective potency, the means, and the formative stimulus. Its principal object has been to show that all morphogenesis may be resolved into the three phenomena expressed by those concepts; in other terms, that morphogenesis may be proved to consist simply and solely of what is expressed by them. Have we indeed succeeded in attaining this object? Has nothing been left out? Is it really possible to explain every morphogenetic event, at least in the most general way, by the aid of the terms potency, means, and stimulus?
All of these questions are apt to lead us to further considerations. Perhaps these considerations will give us a very clear and simple result by convincing us that it is indeed possible to analyse morphogenesis in our schematic way.
But if the answer were a negative one? What would that suggest?
The full analysis of morphogenesis into a series of single formative occurrences, brought about by the use of given means and on the basis of given potencies, might assure us, perhaps, that, though not yet, still at some future time, a further sort of analysis will be possible: the analysis into the elemental facts studied by the sciences of inorganic nature. The organism might prove to be a machine, not only in its functions but also in its very origin.