THE HISTORICAL SOCIOLOGISTS 1 69 



convincing. The factors of isolation and cross-breeding* are 

 ignored while the Darwinian theory of natural selection is mis- 

 interpreted. 



2. His assumptions concerning primitive groups and their 

 mutual hatred are not sustained by facts. There is co-operation 

 as well as strife, depending on conditions. 



3. Though using the term progress in various places, such use 

 is not warranted from his premises and from his assertion that 

 there are no standards of value. Indeed there can be no values 

 in a strictly deterministic system such as he has attempted to 

 describe. He denies that there is such a thing as progress for 

 humanity as a whole or for " civilization," though he grants that 

 there may be for individual groups for a period of time. He 

 grants that there may be progress, also, in scientific knowledge, 

 although by this he seems to mean merely a heaping-up of infor^ 

 mation.2 



4. He has failed to appreciate the dynamic of intelligence both 

 in individual and social amelioration. 



Finally, while granting the necessity of religion for complete 

 adaptation, — for most people, — he seems to feel that the highest 

 attitude toward the Great Unknown is that of the atheistic free- 

 thinker.^ Judged by the pragmatic test this cannot be true. His 

 fatalistic philosophy of despair, — or of stoical resignation, — is 

 not such as to inspire a group to heroic deeds or lead to that kind 

 of social endeavor which might prevent the decay and destruction 

 of the group that has attained wealth and culture. For this 

 reason his social philosophy can never become the philosophy of 

 the dominant group. It stands condemned as false before that 

 judge which to him is the only judge, — the laws of life. Its 

 normal outcome is the destruction of the group that accepts it 

 and applies its precepts."* 



Gumplowicz^s greatest contribution to our subject is just this, 

 — he has carried passive social adaptation to its logical conclu- 



* His "cross-fertilization of cultures" is the social analogue, however. 



^ Grundriss, pp. 220 f. ' Der Rassenkanipf, pp. 137 f.; Moore, pp. 108, 212 f. 



* Gumplowicz comes under the condemnation pronounced upon the " anthro- 

 pological moralist," by Professor Carver in his most recent book, Essays in Social^ 

 Justice. 



