BIOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY 87 



humanity — the sun and moon, earth, water, and fire, 

 space and time, parents and society, and so on and 

 so forth. 



I make no apologies for the length of this pre- 

 liminary analysis, since it is precisely by the neglect 

 of preliminary analysis that most attempts to corre- 

 late biology and sociology have failed. The salient 

 fact emerges that with man there has been a radical 

 change in evolutionary method. 



As space is limited, I am here only proposing to 

 consider three of the chief contributions which biol- 

 ogy can make to sociology — on the idea of progress, 

 on the relation between individual and commu- 

 nity, and on the applicability of the doctrine of the 

 struggle for existence to man. 



As regards the idea of progress, biology can make 

 a clear and unequivocal contribution: whereas man 

 is biologically so young, his evolution is yet so 

 chaotic and divergently directed, that it is very hard 

 to arrive at definite conclusions from the study of his 

 history alone. It has been a source of constant sur- 

 prise to me that more use has not been made of 

 biological data in the controversy over this question. 

 In the little book recently edited by Mr. Marvin on 

 various aspects of the concept of Progress, there was 

 no article dealing with biological progress; and even 

 in Professor Bury's notable book, The Idea of Prog- 

 ress, biology was as little and as unsatisfactorily 

 drawn upon as in Dean Inge's writings on the 

 subject. 



