SCIENCE AND DEMOCRACY 399 



Some of our less extreme Neo-Darwinists are indeed 

 inclined to think that ' ' the struggle for existence is often a 

 peaceful endeavour after well-being." But as it is now clear 

 that the study of co-operative factors has hitherto been sadly 

 neglected although they are indeed of the greatest conse- 

 quence is it not somewhat paradoxical to say 'that " Struggle " 

 includes or is synonymous with "peaceful endeavour"? Is 

 this not saying, in other words, that co-operation is synonymous 

 with competition? 



Has not the time arrived to replace all vagueness con- 

 cerning these alternatives by explicitness at least in scientific 

 disquisitions? Instead of mixing them up in metaphors we 

 need to demonstrate under what circumstances the one becomes 

 alternative or merely complemental to the other; i.e., to 

 demonstrate the laws which govern co-operation and competi- 

 tion respectively. 



In my opinion "peaceful endeavour" applies to 

 symbiosis, whilst " struggle " (in particular " the law of 

 battle" as propounded by Darwin and others) refers chiefly to 

 the opposite category, viz., anti-biotics. Darwin concluded in 

 the Origin that "from the war ('peaceful endeavour '?) of 

 nature, from famine and death (?) the most exalted objects 

 which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of 

 the higher animals, directly follows." We can forgive Darwin 

 this one-sided emphasis of the competitive factors, seeing that 

 he had given particular care to the study of this phase of life 

 (which we may therefore assume to have bulked rather 

 formidably in his mind). He at any rate was the pioneer who 

 had shed a flood of light on this peculiarly fascinating subject, 

 which, in the days of obscurantism, needed urging, if only as 

 a prelude to the still more important, though less conspicuous, 

 subject of co-operation (which would indeed seem to require 

 special emphasis in these latter days of militarism). 



We may likewise excuse Darwin for making a sweeping 

 metaphor do (substitute) service pending the lack of systematic 

 study and knowledge concerning the fundamentally important 



