THE BEARING OF THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION UPON SOCIAL PROBLEMS
Since Darwin wrote his _Origin of Species_ all the sciences in any
way connected with biology have been profoundly influenced by his theory
of evolution. It is important that the student of sociology, therefore,
should understand at the outset something of the bearing of Darwin's
theory upon social problems.
We may note at the beginning, however, that the word _evolution_
has two distinct, though related, meanings. First, it usually means
Darwin's doctrine of descent; secondly, it is used to designate
Spencer's theory of universal evolution. Let us note somewhat in detail
what evolution means in the first of these senses.
The Darwinian Theory of Descent.--Darwin's theory of descent is the
doctrine that all forms of life now existing or that have existed upon
the earth have sprung from a few simple primitive types. According to
this theory all forms of animals and plants have sprung from a few
primitive stocks, though not necessarily one, because even in the
beginning there may have existed a distinction at least between the
plant and the animal types. So far as the animal world is concerned,
then, this theory amounts to the assertion of the kinship of all life.
From one or more simple primitive unicellular forms have arisen the
great multitude of multicellular forms that now exist. Popularly,
Darwin's theory is supposed to be that man sprang from the apes, but
this, strictly speaking, is a misconception. Darwin's theory
necessitates the belief, not that man sprang from any existing species
of ape, but rather that the apes and man have sprung from some common
stock. It is equally true, however, that man and many other of the lower
animals, according to this theory, have come from a common stock. As was
said above, the theory is not a theory of the descent of man from any
particular animal type, but rather the theory of the kinship, the
genetic relationship, of all animal species.
It is evident that if we assume Darwin's theory of descent in sociology
we must look for the beginnings of many peculiarly human things in the
animal world below man. Human institutions, according to this theory,
could not be supposed to have an independent origin, or human society in
any of its forms to be a fact by itself, but rather all human things are
connected with the whole world of animal life below man. Thus if we are,
according to this theory, to look for the origin of the family, we
should have to turn first of all to the habits of animals nearest man.
This is only one of the many bearings which Darwin's theory has upon the
study of social problems; but it is evident even from this that it
revolutionizes sociology. So long as it was possible to look upon human
society as a distinct creation, as something isolated, by itself in
nature, it was possible to hold to intellectualistic views of the origin
of human institutions.
But some one may ask: Why should the sociologist accept Darwin's theory?
What proofs does it rest upon? What warrant has a student of sociology
for accepting a doctrine of such far-reaching consequences? The reply
is, that biologists, generally, during the last fifty years, after a
careful study of Darwin's arguments and after a careful examination of
all other evidence, have come substantially to agree with him. There is
no great biologist now living who does not accept the essentials of the
doctrine of descent. Five lines of proof may be offered in support of
Darwin's theories, and it may be well for us, as students of sociology,
briefly to review these.
(1) The homologies or similarities of structure of different animals.
There are very striking similarities of structure between all the higher
animals. Between the ape and man, for example, there are over one
hundred and fifty such anatomical homologies; that is, in the ape we
find bone for bone, and muscle for muscle, corresponding to the
structure of the human body. Even an animal so remotely related to man
as the cat has many more resemblances to man in anatomical structure
than dissimilarities. Now, the meaning of these anatomical homologies,
biologists say, is that these animals are genetically related, that is,
they had a common ancestry at some remote period in the past.
(2) The presence of vestigial organs in the higher animals supplies
another argument for the belief in common descent. In man, for example,
there exist over one hundred of these vestigial or rudimentary organs,
as the vermiform appendix, the pineal gland, and the like. Many of these
vestigal organs, which are now functionless in man, perform functions in
lower animals, and this is held to show that at some remote period in
the past they also functioned in man's ancestors.
(3) The facts of embryology seem to point to the descent of the higher
types of animals from the lower types. The embryo or fetus in its
development seems to recapitulate the various stages through which the
species has passed. Thus the human embryo at one stage of its
development resembles the fish; at another stage, the embryo of a dog;
and for a long time it is impossible to distinguish between the human
embryo and that of one of the larger apes. These embryological facts,
biologists say, indicate genetic relation between the various animal
forms which the embryo in its different stages simulates.
(4) The fossil remains of extinct species of animals are found in the
earth's crust which are evidently ancestors of existing species. Until
the doctrine of descent was accepted there was no way of explaining the
presence of these fossil remains of extinct animals in the earth's
crust. It was supposed by some that the earth had passed through a
series of cataclysms in which all forms of life upon the earth had been
many times destroyed and many times re-created. It is now demonstrated,
however, that these fossils are related to existing species, and
sometimes it is possible to trace back the evolution of existing forms
to very primitive forms in this way. For example, it is possible to
trace the horse, which is now an animal with a single hoof, walking on a
single toe, back to an animal that walked upon four toes and had four
hoofs and was not much larger than a fox. It is not so generally known
that it is also possible to trace man back through fossil human remains
that have been discovered in the earth's crust to the time when he is
apparently just emerging from some apelike form. The latest discovery of
the fossil remains of man made by Dr. Dubois in Java in 1894 shows a
creature with about half the brain capacity of the existing civilized
man and with many apelike characteristics. Thus we cannot except even
man from the theory of evolution and suppose that he was especially
created, as Alfred Russel Wallace, Darwin's contemporary and colaborer,
and others, have supposed.
(5) The last line of argument in favor of the belief that all existing
species have descended from a few simple primitive forms is found in the
fact of the variation of animals through artificial selection under
domestication. For generations breeders have known that by carefully
selecting the type of animal or plant which they have desired, it is
possible to produce approximately that type. Thus have originated all
the breeds or varieties of domestic plants and animals. Now, Darwin
conceived that nature also exercises a selection by weeding out those
individuals that are not adapted to their environment. In other words,
nature, though unconscious, selects in a negative way the stronger and
the better adapted. Animals vary in nature as well as under
domestication from causes not yet well understood. The variations that
were favorable to survival, Darwin argued, would secure the survival,
through the passing on of these variations by heredity of the better
adapted types of plants and animals. The natural process of weeding out
the inferior or least adapted through early death, or through failure to
reproduce, Darwin called "natural selection", and likened it in its
effect upon organisms to the artificial selection which breeders
consciously use to secure types of plants or animals that they desire.
The only great addition to Darwin's theories which has been made since
he wrote is that of the Dutch botanist, Hugo de Vries, who has shown
that the variations which are fruitful for the production of new species
are probably great or discontinuous variations, which he terms
"mutations," instead of the small fluctuating variations which Darwin
thought were probably most important in the production of new species.
De Vries' theory in no way affects the doctrine of descent, nor does it
take away from the importance of natural selection in fixing the
variations. Darwin's theory, therefore, stands in all of its essentials
to-day unquestioned by men of science, and it must be assumed by the
student of sociology in any attempt to explain social evolution.
Spencer's Theory of Universal Evolution.--A second meaning given to the
word _evolution_ is that which Spencer popularized in his _First
Principles_. This is a philosophical theory of the universe which
asserts that not only have species of animals come to be what they are
through a process of development, but everything whatsoever that exists,
from molecules of matter to stars and planets. It is the view that the
universe is in a process of development. Evolution in this wider sense
includes all existing things whatsoever, while evolution in the sense of
Darwin's theory is confined to the organic world. While the theory that
all things existing have through a process of orderly change come to be
what they are, is a very old one, yet it was undoubtedly Spencer's
writings which popularized the theory, and to Spencer we also owe the
attempt in his Synthetic Philosophy to trace the working of evolution in
all the different realms of phenomena. The belief in universal evolution
which Spencer popularized has also come to be generally accepted by
scientific and philosophical thinkers. While Spencer's particular
theories of evolution may not be accepted, some form of universal
evolution is very generally believed in. The thought of evolution now
dominates all the sciences,--physical, biological, psychological, and
sociological. It is evident that the student of society, if he accepts
fully the modern scientific spirit, must also assume evolution in this
second or universal sense.
The Different Phases of Universal Evolution.--It may be well, in order
to correlate our knowledge of social evolution with knowledge in
general, to note the different well-marked phases of universal
evolution.
(1) _Cosmic Evolution._ This is the phase the astronomer and the
geologist are particularly interested in. It deals with the evolution of
worlds. In this phase we are dealing merely with physical matter, and it
is supposed that the active principle which works in this phase of
evolution is the attraction of particles of matter for one another. This
leads to the condensation of matter into suns and their planets, and the
geological evolution of the earth, for example. Laplace's nebular
hypothesis is an attempt to give an adequate statement of the cosmic
phase of evolution. While this hypothesis has been much criticized of
late, in its essentials it seems to stand. We are not, however, as
students of society, concerned with this phase of evolution.
(2) _Organic Evolution._ This is the phase of evolution with which
Darwin dealt and which biology, as a science of evolution of living
forms, deals with. The great merit of Darwin's work was that he showed
that the active principle in this phase of evolution is natural
selection; that is, the extermination of the unadapted through death or
through failure to reproduce. Types unsuited to their environment thus
die before reproduction. The stronger and better fitted survive, and
thus the type is raised. Natural selection may be regarded, then, as
essentially the creative force in this phase of evolution.
(3) _The Evolution of Mind._ This might be included in organic
evolution, but all organisms do not apparently have minds. It is evident
that among animals those that would stand the best chance of surviving
would not be simply those that have the strongest brute strength, but
rather those that have the keenest intelligence and that could adapt
themselves quickly to their environment, that could see approaching
danger and escape it. Natural selection has, therefore, favored in the
animal world the survival of those animals with the highest type of
intelligence. It cannot be said, however, that natural selection is the
only force which has created the mind in all its various expressions.
(4) _Social Evolution._ By social evolution we mean the evolution
of groups, or, in strict accordance with our definition of society,
groups of psychically interconnected individuals. Groups are to be found
throughout the animal world, and it is in the human species, as we have
already seen, that the highest types of association are found. This is
not an accident. Association, or living together in groups, has been one
of the devices by which animal species have been enabled to survive. It
is evident that not only would intelligence help an animal to survive
more than brute strength, but that ability to cooperate with one's
fellows would also help in the same way. Consequently we find a degree
of combination or coöperation almost at the very beginning of life, and
it is without doubt through coöperation that man has become the dominant
and supreme species upon the planet. Man's social instincts, in other
words, have been perhaps even more important for his survival than his
intelligence. The man who lies, cheats, and steals, or who indulges in
other unsocial conduct sets himself against his group and places his
group at a disadvantage as compared with other groups. Now, natural
selection is continually operating upon groups as well as upon
individuals, and the group which can command the most loyal, most
efficient membership, and has the best organization, is, other things
being equal, the group which survives. Natural selection is, then,
active in social evolution as well as in general organic evolution. But
the distinctive principle of social evolution is coöperation. In other
words, it is sympathetic feeling, altruism, which has made the higher
types of social evolution possible.
While the same factors are at work in the higher phases of evolution
which are at work in the lower phases, yet it is evident that the higher
phases have new and distinct factors. Sociology, being especially
concerned with social evolution, has a new and distinct factor at work
which we may call association, coöperation, or combination, and this it
is which gives sociology its distinct place in the list of general
sciences.
Factors In Organic Evolution.--As has already been said, the factors
which are at work in organic evolution generally are also at work in
social evolution. We need, therefore, to note these factors carefully
and to see how they are at work in human society as well as in the
animal world below man. While these factors are not all of the factors
which are at work in social evolution, still they are the primitive
factors, and are, therefore, of fundamental importance. Let us see what
these factors are.
(1) _The Multiplication of Organisms in Some Geometric Ratio through
Reproduction._ It is a law of life that every species must increase
so that the number of offspring exceeds the number of parents if the
species is to survive. If the offspring only equal in number the
parents, some of them will die before maturity is reached or will fail
to reproduce, and so the species will gradually become extinct. Every
species normally increases, therefore, in some geometric ratio. Now,
this tendency to reproduce in some geometric ratio, which characterizes
all living organisms, means that any species, if left to itself, would
soon reach such numbers as to occupy the whole earth. Darwin showed, for
example, that though the elephant is the slowest breeding of all
animals, if every elephant lived its normal length of life (one hundred
years) and to every pair were born six offspring, then, at the end of
seven hundred years there would be nineteen million living elephants
descended from a single pair. This illustration shows the enormous
possibilities of any species reproducing in geometric ratio, as all
species in order to survive must do.
That this tendency to increase in some geometric ratio applies also to
man is evident from all of the facts which we know concerning human
populations. It is not infrequent for a people to double its numbers
every twenty-five years. If this were continued for any length of time,
it is evident that a single nation could soon populate the whole earth.
(2) _Heredity._ Heredity in organic evolution secures a continuity
of the species or racial type. By heredity is meant the resemblance
between parent and offspring. It is the law that like begets like.
Offspring born of a species belong to that species, and usually resemble
their parents more closely even than other members of the species.
It is evident that heredity is at work also in human society as well as
in the animal world. We do not expect that the children born of parents
of one race, for example, will belong to another race. Racial heredity
is one of the most significant facts of human society, and even family
heredity counts in its influence far more than some have supposed.
(3) _Variation._ This factor in organic evolution means that no two
individuals, even though born of the same parents, are exactly like each
other. Neither are they of a type exactly between their two parents, as
theoretically they should be, since inheritance is equal from both
parents. Every new individual born in the organic world, while it
resembles its parents and belongs to its species or race, varies within
certain limits. This variation so runs through organic nature that we
are told that there are no two leaves on a single tree exactly alike.
The result of this variation, the causes of which are not yet well
understood, is that some individuals vary in favorable directions,
others in unfavorable directions. Some are born strong, some weak; some
inferior, some superior.
It is evident that variation characterizes the human species quite as
much as other species, and indeed the limits of variation are wider,
probably, in the human species than in any other species. Man is the
most variable of all animals, and human individuality and personality
owe not a little of their distinctiveness to this fact.
(4) _The Struggle for Existence._ Individuals in all species, as we
have seen, are born in larger numbers than is necessary. The result is
that a competition is entered into between species and individuals
within the species for place and for existence. This competition or
struggle results in the dying out of the inferior, that is, of those who
are not adapted to their environment. The gradual dying out of the
inferior or unadapted through competition results in the survival of the
superior or better adapted, and ultimately in the survival of the
fittest or those most adapted. Thus the type is raised, and we have
evolution through natural selection, that is, through the elimination of
the unfit.
Some have thought that this struggle for existence which is so evident
in the animal world does not take place in human society. This, however,
is a mistake. The struggle for existence in human society is not an
unmitigated one, as it seems to be very often in the animal world, but
it is nevertheless a struggle which has the same consequences. In the
human world the competition, except in the lower classes, is not so much
for food, as it is for position and for supremacy. But this struggle for
place and power results in human society in the weak and inferior going
to the wall, and therefore ultimately in their elimination. In all
essential respects, then, the struggle for existence goes on in human
society as it does in the animal world. This means that in society, as
in the animal world, progress comes primarily through the elimination of
unfit individuals. The unfit in human society, as we shall see, are
especially those who cannot adapt themselves to their social
environment. Progress in society, in a certain sense, waits upon death,
as it does in all the rest of the animal world. Death is the means by
which the stream of life is purged from its inferior and unfit elements.
(5) _Another Factor in Organic Evolution is Coöperation_, or
altruism, as we have already called it. As Henry Drummond has said, this
is the struggle not for one's own life but for the lives of others.
Really, however, it is a device which enables a group of individuals to
struggle more successfully with the adverse factors in their
environment. Something of coöperation,--that is, a group of individuals
carrying on a common life,--is found almost at the beginning of life,
and, as we rise in the scale of animal creation, the amount of
coöperation and of altruistic feelings which accompany it very greatly
increases. Perhaps the chief source of this coöperation is to be found
in the rearing of offspring. The family group, even in the lower
animals, seems to be the chief source of altruism. At any rate,
sympathetic or altruistic instincts grow up in all animals, probably
chiefly through the necessities of reproduction.
It is only in human social life that coöperation, or altruism, attains
its full development. Human society is characterized by the protection
it affords to its weaker members, and in human society the natural
process of eliminating the inferior often seems reversed. As Huxley has
pointed out, human society tries to fit as many as possible to survive,
and we may add, not only to survive, but to live well. Altruism and its
resulting coöperation have come especially to characterize human social
evolution. To some extent this is due, no doubt, to the necessities of
group survival; for only that nation, for example, can survive that can
maintain the most loyal citizenship, the best institutions, and the
largest spirit of self-sacrifice in its members. Human social groups,
therefore, try to fit as many individuals as possible for the most
efficient membership, and this necessitates caring for the temporarily
weak, and also for the permanently incapacitated, in order that the
sentiments of social solidarity may be strengthened to their utmost.
It is evident, then, that all the factors at work in organic evolution
are at work also in social evolution, though in some part modified and
varying in degree. The struggle for existence in human society, for
example, has been greatly modified from the condition in the early
animal world, while coöperation, or altruism, is much more highly
developed. Nevertheless, these factors of organic evolution are at work
in social evolution and must be taken into full account by the student
of social problems. Social evolution rests upon organic evolution.
Some Effects upon Industry.--These factors in organic evolution express
themselves more or less in the industrial phase of human society. Thus,
the first factor, the multiplication of organisms through reproduction
in some geometric ratio, was first studied by Malthus, an economist in
the beginning of the nineteenth century, and exclusively with reference
to its effect upon economic conditions. Malthus perceived the tendency
for human beings to multiply in some geometric ratio where food supply
was sufficiently abundant, and argued from this that if better wages,
and so a larger food supply, were given the lower classes, they would
multiply so much more rapidly that worse poverty would result than
before. There is no doubt that in certain classes of human society there
is a tendency for population to press against food supply, and it is in
these classes that the struggle for existence takes on its most
animal-like forms.
Again, the struggle for existence is continually illustrated in the
world of human industry. Not only do individuals lose place and power
because they are unadapted to their environment, but also economic
groups, such as corporations, show the natural competition or struggle
for existence sometimes in its most intense form. The result in all
cases is the dying out of the least adapted and the survival of the
better adapted. Thus, through competition and the survival of the better
adapted we secure in industry the evolution of higher types of
industrial organization, industrial methods, and the like, just as
higher types are secured in the same way in the animal world. Again, in
economic matters, as in other social affairs, coöperation continually
comes in to modify competition and to lift it to a higher plane. Just as
the higher type of societies has been characterized by higher types of
coöperation, so it is safe to say that the higher types of industry are
characterized by higher types of coöperation. And while, as we shall see
later, coöperation can never displace competition in industry any more
than elsewhere in life, yet increasing coöperation characterizes the
higher types of industry as well as the higher types of society.
A word of caution is perhaps necessary against confusing the economic
struggle as it exists in modern society with the natural struggle under
primitive conditions. It is evident that in present society the economic
struggle has been greatly changed in character from the primitive
struggle, and therefore can no longer have the same results. Laws of
inheritance, of taxation, and many other artificial economic conditions,
have greatly interfered with the natural struggle. The rich and
economically successful are therefore by no means to be confused with
the biologically fit. On the contrary, many of the economically
successful are such simply through artificial advantageous
circumstances, and from the standpoint of biology and sociology they are
often among the less fit, rather than the more fit, elements of society.
A Brief Survey of Social Evolution from the Biological Standpoint.--In
order to sum up and make clear some of the principal applications to
social evolution of the biological principles just stated we shall
endeavor to state in a brief way some of the salient features of social
evolution from the biological standpoint.
From the very beginning there has been no such thing as unmitigated
individual struggle among animals. Nowhere in nature does pure
individualism exist in the sense that the individual animal struggles
alone, except perhaps in a few solitary species which are apparently on
the way to extinction. The assumption of such a primitive individual
struggle has been at the bottom of many erroneous views of human
society. The primary conflict is between species. A secondary conflict,
however, is always found between the members of the same species.
Usually this conflict within the species is a competition between
groups. The human species exactly illustrates these statements.
Primitively its great conflict was with other species of animals. The
supremacy of man over the rest of the animal world was won only after an
age-long conflict between man and his animal rivals. While this conflict
went on there was apparently but little struggle within the species
itself. The lowest groups of which we have knowledge, while continually
struggling against nature, are rarely at war with one another. But after
man had won his supremacy and the population of groups came to increase
so as to encroach seriously upon food supply, and even on territorial
limits of space, then a conflict between human groups, which we call
war, broke out and became almost second nature to man. It needs to be
emphasized, however, that the most primitive groups are not warlike, but
only those that have achieved their supremacy over nature and attained
considerable size. In other words, the struggle between groups which we
call war was occasioned very largely by numbers and food supply. To this
extent at least war primitively arose from economic conditions, and it
is remarkable how economic conditions have been instrumental in bringing
about all the great wars of recorded human history.
The conflict among human groups, which we call war, has had an immense
effect upon human social evolution. Five chief effects must be noted.
(1) Intergroup struggle gave rise to higher forms of social
organization, because only those groups could succeed in competition
with other groups that were well organized, and especially only those
that had competent leadership.
(2) Government, as we understand the word, was very largely an outcome
of the necessities of this intergroup struggle, or war. As we have
already seen, the groups that were best organized, that had the most
competent leadership, would stand the best chance of surviving.
Consequently the war leader or chief soon came, through habit, to be
looked upon as the head of the group in all matters. Moreover, the
exigencies and stresses of war frequently necessitated giving the war
chief supreme authority in times of danger, and from this, without
doubt, arose despotism in all of its forms. The most primitive tribes
are republican or democratic in their form of government, but it has
been found that despotic forms of government rapidly take the place of
the primitive democratic type, where a people are continually at war
with other peoples.
(3) A third result of war in primitive times was the creation of social
classes. After a certain stage was reached groups tried not so much to
exterminate one another as to conquer and absorb one another. This was,
of course, after agriculture had been developed and slave labor had
reached a considerable value. Under such circumstances a conquered group
would be incorporated by the conquerors as a slave or subject class.
Later, this enslaved class may have become partially free as compared
with some more recently subjugated or enslaved classes, and several
classes in this way could emerge in a group through war or conquest.
Moreover, the presence of these alien and subject elements in a group
necessitated a stronger and more centralized government to keep them in
control, and this was again one way in which war favored a development
of despotic governments. Later, of course, economic conditions gave rise
to classes, and to certain struggles between the classes composing a
people.
(4) Not only was social and political organization and the evolution of
classes favored by intergroup struggle, but also the evolution of
morality. The group that could be most efficiently organized would be,
other things being equal, the group which had the most loyal and most
self-sacrificing membership. The group that lacked a group spirit, that
is, strong sentiments of solidarity and harmonious relations between its
members, would be the group that would be apt to lose in conflict with
other groups, and so its type would tend to be eliminated. Consequently
in all human groups we find recognition of certain standards of conduct
which are binding as between members of the same group. For example,
while a savage might incur no odium through killing a member of another
group, he was almost always certain to incur either death or exile
through killing a member of his own group. Hence arose a group code of
ethics founded very largely upon the conceptions of kinship or blood
relationship, which bound all members of a primitive group to one
another.
(5) A final consequence of war among human groups has been the
absorption of weaker groups and the growth of larger and larger
political groups, until in modern times a few great nations dominate the
population of the whole world. That this was not the primitive
condition, we know from human history and from other facts which
indicate the disappearance of a vast number of human groups in the past.
The earth is a burial ground of tribes and natrons as well as of
individuals. In the competition between human groups, only a few that
have had efficient organization and government, loyal membership and
high standards of conduct within the group, have survived. The number of
peoples that have perished in the past is impossible to estimate. But we
can get some inkling of the number by the fact that philologists
estimate that for every living language there are twenty dead languages.
When we remember that a language not infrequently stands for several
groups with related cultures, we can guess the immense number of human
societies that have perished in the past in this intergroup competition.
Even though war passes away entirely, nations can never escape this
competition with one another. While the competition may not be upon the
low and brutal plane of war, it will certainly go on upon the higher
plane of commerce and industry, and will probably be on this higher
plane quite as decisive in the life of peoples in future as war was in
the past.
While the primary struggle within the human species has been in the
historic period between nations and races, this is not saying, of
course, that struggle and competition have not gone on within these
larger groups. On the contrary, as has already been implied, a continual
struggle has gone on between classes, first perhaps of racial origin,
and later of economic origin. Also there is within the nation a struggle
between parties and sects, and sometimes between "sections" and
communities. Usually, however, the struggle within the nation is a
peaceful one and does not come to bloodshed.
Again, within each of these minor groups that we have mentioned struggle
and competition in some modified form goes on between its members. Thus
within a party or class there is apt to be a struggle or competition
between factions. There is, indeed, no human group that is free from
struggle or competition between its members, unless it be the family.
The family seems to be so constituted that normally there is no
competition between its members,--at least, there is good ground tor
believing that competition between the members of a family is to be
considered exceptional, or even abnormal.
From what has been said it is evident that competition and coöperation
are twin principles in the evolution of social groups. While competition
characterizes in the main the relation between groups, especially
independent political groups, and while coöperation characterizes in the
main the relation of the members of a given group to one another, still
competition and coöperation are correlatives in practically every phase
of the social life. Some degree of competition, for example, has to be
maintained by every group between its members if it is going to maintain
high standards of efficiency or of loyalty. If there were no competition
with respect to the matters that concern the inner life of groups, it is
evident that the groups would soon lose efficiency in leadership and in
membership and would sooner or later be eliminated. Consequently
society, from certain points of view, presents itself to the student at
the present time as a vast competition, while from other standpoints it
presents itself as a vast coöperation.
It follows from this that competition and coöperation are both equally
important in the life of society. It has been a favorite idea that
competition among human beings should be done away with, and that
coöperation should be substituted to take its place entirely. It is
evident, however, that this idea is impossible of realization. If a
social group were to check all competition between its members, it would
stop thereby the process of natural selection or of the elimination of
the unfit, and, as a consequence, would soon cease to progress. If some
scheme of artificial selection were substituted to take the place of
natural selection, it is evident that competition would still have to be
retained to determine who were the fittest. A society that would give
positions of trust and responsibility to individuals without imposing
some competitive test upon them would be like a ship built partially of
good and partially of rotten wood,--it would soon go to pieces.
This leads us to emphasize the continued necessity of selection in
society. No doubt natural selection is often a brutal and wasteful means
of eliminating the weak in human societies, and no doubt human reason
might devise superior means of bringing about the selection of
individuals which society must maintain. To some extent it has done this
through systems of education and the like, which are, in the main,
selective processes for picking out the most competent individuals to
perform certain social functions. But the natural competition, or
struggle between individuals, has not been done away with, especially in
economic matters, and it is evidently impossible to do away with it
until some vast scheme of artificial selection can take its place. Such
a scheme is so far in the future that it is hardly worth talking about.
The best that society can apparently do at the present time is to
regulate the natural competition between individuals, and this it is
doing increasingly.
What people rightfully object to is, not competition, but unregulated or
unfair competition. In the interest of solidarity, that is, in the
interest of the life of the group as a whole, all forms of competition
in human society should be so regulated that the rules governing the
competition may be known and the competition itself public. It is
evident that in politics and in business we are very far from this ideal
as yet, although society is unquestionably moving toward it.
A word in conclusion about the nature of moral codes and standards from
the social point of view. It is evident that moral codes from the social
point of view are simply formulations of standards of conduct which
groups find it convenient or necessary to impose upon their members.
Even morality, in an idealistic sense, seems from a sociological
standpoint to be those forms of conduct which conduce to social harmony,
to social efficiency, and so to the survival of the group. Groups,
however, as we have already pointed out, cannot do as they please. They
are always hard-pressed in competition by other groups and have to meet
the standards of efficiency which nature imposes. Morality, therefore,
is not anything arbitrarily designed by the group, but is a standard of
conduct which necessities of social survival require. In other words,
the right, from the point of view of natural science, is that which
ultimately conduces to survival, not of the individual, but of the group
or of the species. This is looking at morality, of course, from the
sociological point of view, and in no way denies the religious and
metaphysical view of morality, which may be equally valid from a
different standpoint.
Finally, we need to note that natural selection does not necessitate in
any mechanical sense certain conduct on the part of individuals or
groups. Rather, natural selection marks the limits of variation which
nature permits, and within those limits of variation there is a large
amount of freedom of choice, both to individuals and to groups. Human
societies, therefore, may be conceivably free to take one of several
paths of development at any particular point. But in the long run they
must conform to the ultimate conditions of survival; and this probably
means that the goal of their evolution is largely fixed for them. Human
groups are free only in the sense that they may go either backward or
forward on the path which the conditions of survival mark out for them.
They are free to progress or to perish. But social evolution in any
case, in the sense of social change either toward higher or toward lower
social adaptation, is a necessity that cannot be escaped. Sociology and
all social science is, therefore, a study not of what human groups would
like to do, but of what they must do in order to survive, that is, how
they can control their environment by utilizing the laws which govern
universal evolution.
From this brief and most elementary consideration of the bearings of
evolutionary theory upon social problems it is evident that evolution,
in the sense of what we know about the development of life and society
in the past, must be the guidepost of the sociologist. Human social
evolution, we repeat, rests upon and is conditioned by biological
evolution at every point. There is, therefore, scarcely any sanity in
sociology without the biological point of view.
SELECT REFERENCES
_For brief reading:_
FAIRBANKS, _Introduction to Sociology,_ Chaps. XIV.-XV.
JORDAN, _Foot-Notes to Evolution,_ Chaps. I.-III.
ELY, _Evolution of Industrial Society._ Part II, Chaps. I.-III.
_For more extended reading:_
DARWIN, _Descent of Man._
FISKE, _Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy._
WALLACE, _Darwinism._
_On the religious aspects of evolution:_
DRUMMOND, _Ascent of Man._
FISKE, _The Destiny of Man._
FISKE, _Through Nature to God._