ABSTRACT
The scientific temper of mind is commonly identified with 'naturalism' or 'positivism', the romantic with 'supernaturalism' or 'transcendentalism'. Reduced to its proper proportions, then, the mechanical theory of Nature is nothing but the charter of autonomy for the physico-chemical sciences. Order demands the recognition of differences as much as the recognition of identities. 'Mechanism' secures the right of the physical sciences to eliminate from among their concepts, or working-hypotheses, all reference to will, purpose, design, intelligence. Mechanism, in short, is right as a protest against confusion of categories, wrong in denying the legitimacy of all categories other than its own. If this theory of the relation of teleology to mechanism is not to lead people seriously astray, two qualifications would seem to be required as safeguards. Regulatory adjustments take place which enable as much of the normal life-economy to be carried on as possible, and which tend to restore it to full normality.
