FROM PASSIVE TO ACTIVE ADAPTATION 21$ 



as Ward saw, is fatalism. According to this theory, when I 

 awake in the morning some sense impression from without, some 

 idea-suggestion from within, or some organic need sets going a 

 psychical process which with its correlated activities fills the 

 period of conscious activity during my waking hours. Every 

 phase of that process is strictly determined. If I deliberate on 

 a proposed course of action, I can neither prolong the deliberation 

 nor bring it to a close until the proper combination has been 

 reached which results in action. I am but a part of a machine, 

 a part, however, that has become conscious, and strange to say 

 deluded into the belief that I am more than a mere machine. Man 

 is saved from despair by this illusion. 



Now the ultimate solution of this whole question is meta- 

 physical, hence outside the domain of social philosophy, yet one 

 phase of it belongs to our consideration. What are the relative 

 consequences of consistent monism and libertarianism (of some 

 sort) on human well-being and group success ? Let us suppose 

 two competing social groups. In one we have all the adults 

 consistent monists believing that every thought and act is a part 

 of a strictly deterministic system; that at any crucial point in 

 individual life the ultimate decision might have been foreseen by 

 one who knew all the elements within the mind and in the envi- 

 ronment without. The only responsibility of the individual, then, 

 is to society. The feeling of responsibility is a purely social 

 product. In the other group, while granting that heredity and 

 environment determine very largely that character which in turn 

 determines choice, there is still belief that by a sheer act of will 

 the individual may tap new reservoirs of energy which will give 

 him some new grip on life and life's tasks. 1 The people in this 

 group believe that there is at least power to prolong or close a 

 mental conflict involving a great decision; this decision, in turn, 

 having the potency of changing the whole current of life. Which 

 group will be most productive, increase most rapidly in wealth, 

 numbers, power ? Which group will win out in the long run ? 



1 This view is very like that of James, Energies of Men, of Royce, The Spirit 

 of Modern Philosophy, Lecture XII, and The World and the Individual, Lecture X, 

 also of Bowne, Personalism. 



