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it must be held that I directly perform the operation of each intermediary
factor, if I am to be the ultimate explanation of the
particular orientation of the series. Similarly with God, although
it is true that God sustains the operation of second
causes in a manner that transcends my sustaining of the operating
of intermediary factors by my intent, purpose, and initial
action in a given situation. So Tennant, commenting on the organic
realm: “The fact of organic evolution, even when the
maximum of instrumentality is accredited to what is figuratively
called natural selection, is not incompatible with teleology
on a grander scale. . . . This kind of teleology does not set
out from the particular adaptations in individual organisms or
species so much as from considerations as to the progressiveness
of the evolutionary process and as to the organic realm as a
whole.” (Footnote 67: Ibid., p. 84.) Explanation in terms of
proximate causes, even if it eliminate appeal to intelligent will
as the ultimate explanation of the whole progress of successive
adaptations in nature. [[321]]
But as a matter of fact, even if the evolutionary explanation
of the organic realm were granted it appears that the process is
not explicable merely in terms of proximate causes, but that it
requires a progressive and continuing intelligent guidance for
its sufficient explanation. Of course, this does not mean that
proximate causes are not operative at every point in the process;
what it does mean is that the particular mode of their operation
is explicable only in teleological terms.
The “survival of the fittest” presupposes the arrival of the fit,
and, as Tennant remarks, “throws no light thereupon.” (Footnote
68: Ibid., p. 85.) This is not to say that there are no proximate
causes from which the “fittest” arrives: but rather that,
merely because a chance arrival of anything at all is, as we have
already explained at length, absolutely improbable, the fittest
could not conceivably appear without the guidance of intelligent
will in setting up the whole series of proximate causes and