Emergent evolution and the social / by William Morton Wheeler.

  • William Morton Wheeler
Date:
1927
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Emergent evolution and the social / by William Morton Wheeler. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    effects produced by bodies as a result of their intrinsic composition or as chemical elements. Like every plant or animal species, every chemical body presents its special problem when its mode of action is traced to the behaviour of its component elements, or, as common¬ ly stated, to the elements which explain it. The same statement may be made in regard to properties as in regard to effects, since we cannot derive by simple addition the properties of the molecules from the properties of their constituent atoms, the properties of the cells from those of their molecular compounds, or the properties of animals and plants from those of their cells. We must say rather that the effects and properties of a composite whole are essentially determined by what the technician calls the configuration of a system consisting of simpler parts, i.e. by the conditions of the system. These still remain, nevertheless, under the influence of and in dependence on the general environment which acts upon them.” Among the recent studies of emergence
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