54 The Place of Consciousness in Evolution 



but he comes by them socially, through this process of 

 social growth, rather than by direct physical inheritance. 



To show this in a sketchy way, we may take the last 

 three points which Professor Cope places under the La- 

 marckian column, the points which involve consciousness, 

 and show how indeed they may still be true for the Dar- 

 winian if he avail himself of the resource offered by ' Social 

 Transmission.' 



This is done rather from interest in the subject than with 

 any wish to controvert Professor Cope ; and it may well be 

 that his later statements may show that he is able to accept 

 the argument. 1 



2. The Origin of Adaptive Movements 



i. (5 of Cope's table.) 'Movements of the organism 

 are caused or directed by sensation and other conscious 

 states.' 



The point at issue here between the advocates of the 

 two views of evolution would be whether it is necessary 

 that the child should inherit any of the particular conscious 

 states, or their special nervous dispositions, which the parent 

 acquired in his lifetime, in order to secure through them the 

 performance of the same actions by the child. I should 

 say, no ; and for the reason additional to the usual argu- 

 ments of the Darwinians that 'Social Transmission' is 

 sufficient to secure the result. All we have to find in the 

 child is the high consciousness represented by the ten- 

 dency to imitate socially and so to absorb social copies, 

 together with the law widely recognized by psychologists 

 under the name of dynamogenesis i.e., that the thought 



1 In his reply, referred to above, Professor Cope fully accepts the fact called 

 here ' Social Heredity.' 



