Page:Nature and Life (1934).pdf/57

 existence of the two types of actualities is abandoned, there is no proper fusion of the two in most modern schools of thought. For some, Nature is mere appearance and mind is the sole reality. For others, physical Nature is the sole reauty and mind is an epiphenomenon. Here the phrases “mere appearance” and “epiphenomenon” obviously carry the implication of slight importance for the understanding of the final nature of things.

The doctrine that I am maintaining is that neither physical Nature nor life can be undesstood unless we fuse thern together as essential factoss in the comsposition of “really real” things whose interconnections and individual characters constitute the universe.

The first step in the argument must be to form some concept of what life can mean. Also, we require that the deficiencies in our concept of physical Nature should be supplied by its fusion with life. And we require