they will, at any rate, use different methods. These methods of mutual aid 

 and of striving for common ends are also ways of fighting. They involve what 

 William James (1842-1910), the great American psychologist, called "the 

 moral equivalent of war". 



In Brief 



The processes in a living plant or animal include attacks upon the outer 

 world and resistance to attacks from that outer world, which together make 

 up the "struggle for existence". 



To live at all an individual plant or animal must be adapted, or fit, to get 

 the essentials and to avoid destruction in the specific conditions of its environs. 



The competitive aspects of plant and animal life come from the pressure of 

 population upon the means of subsistence. 



Most individual plants and animals are probably eliminated by chance 

 rather than by specific failures or deficiencies. 



"Self-preservation" is the persistence of an organism's working unity 

 under changing conclitions and under attacks from outside. 



Man, like other species of animals, is a fighter, being aggressive in the pur- 

 suit of his goals and aroused when balked. 



Man's modes of fighting are influenced not alone by the opposition he 

 meets, but by the multitudes of special weapons and skills accumulated in his 

 culture and by his being a member of a co-ordinated social group. 



The goals which human beings set themselves are influenced by their un- 

 derstandings of their own nature and needs and of the nature of the world, 

 and by their feelings as to what is of value — whether food or shelter or home 

 and security or honor and liberty. 



Men have joined together to use their skills and talents and imagination to 

 build for the future, to avoid hunger, to increase security, and to overcome 

 obstacles to decent living. 



Perhaps men will eventually use all their resources jointly for attaining 

 common benefits, rather than for getting special group advantages at the 

 expense of others. 



EXPLORATIONS AND PROJECTS 



1 To investigate the "struggles" of plants, make a survey of the number of dif- 

 ferent species present within a limited area. Select a wild spot twenty-five feet in 

 diameter having as wide a variety of conditions and vegetation as possible. Using 

 general and common names rather than exact scientific ones, list all the organisms 

 found living within the area. Which kinds of plants are dominant? Which of their 



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