 Element-complex: Complexes are relational entities. In Philosophy of Nature, Hartmann explains that he prefers the term “complex” (Gefüge) to the “worn out” (verbrauchten) term “system” (N38c). The elements of a complex are its members, not substrata, and elements are determined by the complex of which they are members (A25c). Complexes have their own type of determination, and in each case the determination extends across the complex’s elements and transforms them. A complex of elements is always a complex of relations and determinations. Elements are essentially determined by the positions they occupy within the complex’s total series of relations (A33a). This explains why elements have functions within the complex. Within a complex, what matters are not the elements, but the relations that they maintain among themselves and with the complex. An irregularly shaped stone, a grain of sand, a puddle, a mountain are not independent complexes, but fragments and parts of larger formations that come into existence before them and within which they exist as subordinate moments (A33c). All natural complexes are complexes of forces and processes, but physical complexes and organisms are different. The inside of the complex of processes that constitutes an organism is the capacity of the complex to maintain its working conditions—what Hartmann calls the self-determination of the organism (A34c), while a physical complex maintains its dynamic stability through equilibrium with its exterior.