THE EVOLUTION OF INDIVIDUALITY 51 



"right" to existence. Otherwise there would be no 

 constructive agents with which to build. 



On the other hand, as the existence of every indi- 

 vidual thing depends on the services of its constituent 

 parts, so the power of those constituent parts to exist, 

 and thereby to fulfil their purpose, depends on the re- 

 ceipt of services from their colleagues. Therefore, to 

 give and to receive service, or the fulfilment of mutual 

 rights and obligations, is the categorical imperative 

 to existence. 



VII. The Egoism and Altruism of Individuality 



The prevalent belief that selfishness and dominion 

 play the chief creative role in nature growth is an error 

 which springs partly from the laymans shallow estimate 

 of evolutionary values, and partly from his failure to 

 recognize the creative and saving processes of social 

 life. 



This error has been greatly strengthened by a sim- 

 ilar lack of discrimination on the part of the biologists, 

 for it might well appear from their analysis of life at 

 large that chance, competition, selfishness, and aggres- 

 sion, were the chief factors in organic evolution, and 

 the real causes of a successful life wherever it may have 

 been achieved. 



Following these suggestions, real or implied, states- 

 men, philosophers, and scientists, as a rule, have as- 

 sumed that the altruistic methods involved in the ethics 

 and morality of man belong to a different domain, or 

 differ fundamentally in origin and in character from 

 those utilized by nature in her creative processes. 



The rapid growth of evolutionary doctrines in the 



