Races and nations as functions of the world whole

races and nations, is the organism; and, as we shall see, this means essentially the human organism.

* * * * *x x

We will disregard the wide variety of forms in which organism may be found and concentrate on the basic pattern which inheres in them all. An organism is an entity consisting of parts. It is a unity in diversity. Its essential characteristic is the relationship of the parts to one another and to the whole. The parts act mutually upon one another and the whole in such a way as to preserve the identity of the whole, and in so doing each organ at the same time realises its own greatest fulfilment. Although there is a kind of hierarchy, because some organs are more necessary to the continued life of the whole than others are—we cannot, for instance, live without brain, or heart, or kidneys, but we can do so without legs or arms—nevertheless there is also a fundamental equality in that the fullest perfection of the whole cannot be attained without the co-operation of every single member. It is a most delicate and wonderful balance. An organism is not a machine and it is not just an aggregate of parts: that is a fundamental distinction, over which much contemporary thinking runs into confusion. It is the archetypal form in which the mind conceives a living whole.

The human organism, because it is the only one we experience which is physically, psychically and spiritually perfected enough to be the bearer of self-consciousness, is thus the archetype of and key to all organism. Mitrinovié speaks of ‘the world as one great mind in process of becoming self-conscious’ and the races and nations as rudimentary organs in course of development. It is fruitless to argue about whether it really is so in fact, or whether we are ‘merely making an analogy’. We do not presume to state as a fact that which we should have difficulty in proving, but we find it possible to say with Solovyov!, following Comte?, that ‘le grand Etre’, or Universal Humanity is neither an abstract notion nor an empirical aggregate, it is an actual living being. And Solovyov further insisted that to call Mankind an organism was no mere analogy but the statement of reality.

1 ‘The Christian Philosophy of Vladimir Solovyoy’; Ellen Mayne; 4th New Atlantis Foundation Lecture, 1957, p.13.

2 ‘The Order of Mankind as seen by Auguste Comte’; D. Shillan; 9th Foundation Lecture, 1963, p.19.