40 THE MISUSE OF METAPHORS IN 



may refer to one instance to see how, from this point of 

 view, the welfare of one individual can contribute to the 

 welfare of another, or how social order and effective 

 individual freedom can grow together, which they un- 

 doubtedly do. Then it was discovered that the social 

 science was based on a metaphor. It was speculating 

 about man in terms of Physics. 



After that, recourse was had to the biological categories. 

 The social philosopher conceived that he was dealing with 

 an "organism^" and, with a suspicious facility, spoke of 

 "natural selection," "struggle for existence," "survival 

 of the fittest," and so forth. And, for a time, social 

 science, if we can dignify the inquiry with that name, 

 fared better. The biological idea does admit the possi- 

 bility of the mutual welfare of the parts, and indicates 

 that a certain independence and variety of functions is 

 compatible with the unity of the whole. It left much 

 unexplained, but it explained many things which from the 

 mechanical point of view were unintelligible and impos- 

 sible. Society may not be an animal, but, at the worst, it 

 is more like an animal than a machine. 



Still, society is not an animal. And the attempt to treat 

 it as an animal led to new contradictions. Human society 

 contains both physical and biological elements, but its basis 

 is neither physical nor biological. Its basis is the rational 

 nature of man. The physical and biological elements in 

 it, its natural life, are organic to, and therefore transmuted 

 by, their relation to a rational principle. Society is the 

 product of conscious ends ; it is generated in the course of 

 the attempt of its members to realise good things con- 

 ceived and willed. And this conscious, purposive element, 

 which is the active and fundamental agent in the matter, 



