476 Darwinism and Sociology 



again, why? Because the greater density, in thrusting men up 

 against each other, augments the intensity of their competition for the 

 means of existence ; and for the problems which society thus has to 

 face differentiation of functions presents itself as the gentlest solution. 



Here one sees that the writer borrows directly from Darwin. 

 Competition is at its maximum between similars, Darwin had de- 

 clared ; different species, not laying claim to the same food, could 

 more easily coexist. Here lay the explanation of the fact that upon 

 the same oak hundreds of different insects might be found. Other 

 things being equal, the same applies to society. He who finds some 

 unadopted speciality possesses a means of his own for getting a living. 

 It is by this division of their manifold tasks that men contrive not to 

 crush each other. Here we obviously have a Darwinian law serving 

 as intermediary in the explanation of that progress of division of 

 labour which itself explains so much in the social evolution. 



And we might take another example, at the other end of the 

 series of sociological systems. G. Tarde is a sociologist with the most 

 pronounced anti-naturalistic views. He has attempted to show that 

 all application of the laws of natural science to society is misleading. 

 In his Opposition Universette he has directly combatted all forms of 

 sociological Darwinism. According to him the idea that the evolu- 

 tion of society can be traced on the same plan as the evolution of 

 species is chimerical. Social evolution is at the mercy of all kinds of 

 inventions, which by virtue of the laws of imitation modify, through 

 individual to individual, through neighbourhood to neighbourhood, 

 the general state of those beliefs and desires which are the only 

 "quantities" whose variation matters to the sociologist. But, it may 

 be rejoined, that however psychical the forces may be, they are none 

 the less subject to Darwinian laws. They compete with each other ; 

 they struggle for the mastery of minds. Between types of ideas, as 

 between organic forms, selection operates. And though it may be 

 that these types are ushered into the arena by unexpected discoveries, 

 we yet recognise in the psychological accidents, which Tarde places at 

 the base of everything, near relatives of those small accidental varia- 

 tions upon which Darwin builds. Thus, accepting Tarde's own repre- 

 sentations, it is quite possible to express in Darwinian terms, with 

 the necessary transpositions, one of the most idealistic sociologies 

 that have ever been constructed. 



These few examples suffice. They enable us to estimate the 

 extent of the field of influence of Darwinism. It affects sociology 

 not only through the agency of its advocates but through that of its 

 opponents. The questionings to which it has given rise have proved 

 no less fruitful than the solutions it has suggested. In short, few 

 doctrines, in the history of social philosophy, will have produced on 

 their passage a finer outcrop of ideas. 



