EVOLUTIONARY PHILOSOPHY AND THE GERMAN WAR. 
A. RicHARDS, Wabash College. 
In the writings of the German intellectual classes during the early 
part of the war much was said about the biological justification for the 
conflict, and the German mind built up a biological argument which 
was faultless in logic, if the premises be granted. It is an argument 
which is readily comprehended in view of the historical development in 
Germany of the Darwinian doctrine of the survival of the fittest. This 
conception early took firm hold of the biological public of that country 
to the practical exclusion of those other explanations of the evolution 
process that have held scientific attention in other countries. The lead- 
ing advocates of the principle of selection have been mostly eminent 
German scholars, many of whom have been even more ardent selec- 
tionists than Darwin himself. Owing to the stress they place upon 
selection as a factor of evolution, they comprise the school of Neo- 
Darwinians, and it is they who have carried Darwinism to the extreme 
in applying it to the problems of mankind. Obviously Darwin never 
anticipated such an application. 
By selection the biologist means that of a race of individuals certain 
ones, especially desirable on the basis of some criterion established in 
the case, are chosen to be the parents of the next generation; and of 
the next progeny, those which show this same desirable character are 
chosen. In this way the domesticated races of animals and plants have 
been established, as is well known to the practical breeder. Natural 
selection, which Darwin assumed to be the chief factor in the evolution 
of species, behaves in the same manner that artificial selection in the 
hands of the breeder does; that is, the conditions of nature establish 
the criterion to which species must conform, and those members of the 
species which are best adapted to the conditions in which they are placed 
will be the ones that survive the inevitable struggle and give rise to 
the next generation. Whenever variations arise, however small in char- 
acter they may be, if they give the individual possessing them any 
added advantage over its fellows, they will be perpetuated because of 
their usefulness. By the gradual accumulation of these small continu- 
ous variations the race is more and more adapted to its surroundings, 
and progress in evolution is made. 
In spite of their zeal in the study of the selection factor, German 
scholars have not taken a leading part in the recent phases of investi- 
gation into evolutionary phenomena. It is true that since Darwin’s 
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