86 evolution: the ages and tomorrow 



greatest promise, namely, the cerebral part of the brain, 

 which in the mammals, nourished by rich, warm blood, 

 takes on a greater mass than the rest of the nervous system 

 put together. It is through the organization of association 

 areas in the brain that nature finds expression in self-con- 

 sciousness and, finally, in conceptual processes. The eternal 

 striving of the mind-matter substance is rewarded here, but 

 only if the society of organisms possessing such a brain 

 evolves the complex, cooperative learning patterns neces- 

 sary to high-level realization. The origin of this brain and 

 those which preceded it is of the utmost importance to my 

 thesis and will be given careful consideration in the follow- 

 ing chapters. 



In reviewing the evolution of animal societies we have 

 rejected, on a biological basis, the idea that social organiza- 

 tion is the reality or the whole whereas the individuals in it 

 are merely parts and cannot be considered as existing inde- 

 pendently. Is the individual, then, the reality, understand- 

 able in itself, and is society merely a collection of atomic in- 

 dividuals? Sociologists sometimes entertain one or the other 

 of these ideas, but it seems obvious from a review of the 

 biology involved that neither of these views has any basis in 

 evidence. No solitary or atomic animals are anywhere to be 

 found at any level; all are associated in some sort of social 

 organization, however loose it may be, and the social urge is 

 innate and universal. Care was taken in the preceding chap- 

 ter to make it clear that society is a system of relations be- 

 tween individuals. The animal acts in a certain manner in as- 

 sociation with its fellows: even in the complex interactions 

 of insect and human societies this basic truth seems appar- 

 ent. We have seen that the source of evolution in a society is 

 in the individual; so, too, is the source of action. Society, 

 then, is a field of action produced by the activities of a num- 

 ber of individuals, as Bergson has expressed it. 



Some sociologists, philosophers, and historians have been 

 strongly attracted to the idea of human societies as social or- 



