170 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 



sion from the standpoint of fatalistic determinism. If he had 

 said the last word the task of the social philosopher would be hard 

 indeed because heartless. To rob people of the illusions of hope 

 and delusions of religious belief without providing a better sub- 

 stitute may be in harmony with science, but surely not with 

 pragmatic philosophy. 



GUSTAV RATZENHOFER (1842-1904) 

 Interests 



Social evolution with Ratzenhofer is to be explained as a 

 process of progressive adaptation in conformity with law, yet it 

 is not to be explained in the mechanical terms of attraction within 

 and antagonism between " heterogen " groups resulting in anni- 

 hilation, modification, and new combinations of elements, as with 

 Gumplowicz, but rather as a process by which the original 

 power, the " Urkraft " or " Ursache " is able to come to ever 

 increasing self-expression and self-realization under the limita- 

 tions of organic structure and physical environment. 1 



The means by which this " Urkraft " works in and through 

 organic nature is termed Interest. " Every form of phenomena 

 from heavenly body to atom, and every organism is a part of the 

 original force with an interest appropriate to its particular de- 

 velopment. . . . These form the principle of creation." 2 



There are two kinds of consciousness, pure consciousness, i. e., 

 the undifferentiated " Urkraft " as it exists in every creature, and 

 the organic consciousness or the differentiated " Urkraft " that 

 has struggled up through the evolutionary process to that self- 

 consciousness which has its highest expression in adult, civilized 

 man. 3 This endeavor on the part of the Urkraft to come to the 

 largest and fullest experience of life is the cause of differences 

 between species. 4 



The Urkraft and the inherent (anhaftende) or inborn (ange- 

 borene) interest are the two principles of creation, working to- 



1 Die Sociologische Erkenntnis, pp. 24, 28, 29, 39 f. 

 8 Ibid., p. 28. 



3 Ibid., p. 26. Cf. p. 54. 



4 Ibid., pp. 28, 29. 



