230 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 



In the exposition of his theory as applied to social evolution he 

 has made large use of principles elaborated by Gumplowicz, 

 Ratzenhofer, Tarde and others with some modifications and 

 additions. The process is almost entirely one of passive spiritual 

 adaptation described by such terms as social assimilation, social 

 karyokinesis (analogous to cross-breeding), compound assimila- 

 tion and pacific assimilation, all working in accordance with the 

 principle of synergy.^ In this discussion natural selection is 

 given a prominent place but reinterpreted and modified in view 

 of psychical and social factors that enter into the higher phase of 

 the cosmic process under consideration.^ 



His discussion of the dynamic factors of social progress forms a 

 transition from passive to active adaptation. The first of these 

 dynamic principles is " difference of potential," this term taken 

 over from mechanics and illustrated by sexual reproduction in 

 biology, being used by analogy to describe that phase of the social 

 process which most sociologists today are explaining in terms of 

 social suggestion and imitation. The second principle, " inno- 

 vation " is interpreted also in terms of mechanics, following 

 Tarde, but even more in terms of biology, having its biological 

 analogue in the " sport," or fortuitous variation which our author 

 considers to be the chief method in the origin of species.^ The 



1 Pure Sociology, pp. 171 f. 



2 The prominence given to the doctrine of adaptation is seen by the following: 

 " If the individual is at all adjusted to his environment his action will contribute 

 in some degree either to the preservation or the continuation of life. At the lower 

 animal stages ... all desires are adapted to the needs of the creature and their 

 satisfaction conduces to the life of either the individual or the species. Any con- 

 tinuous tendency to the contrary would result in the death of the former or the 

 extinction of the latter. It is not really otherwise with society. We have fully 

 shown how everything in society works for the conservation of the group and the 

 race, and how the wayward tendencies of mankind have been subjected to natural 

 and spontaneous restraints in the interest of social order. This social adaptation 

 is well-nigh as complete as organic adaptation, and it would be impossible for any 

 considerable number of men to persist in anti-social acts for any considerable time 

 without disrupting society altogether. . . . Human desires are, therefore, more 

 or less completely adjusted to individual and social needs, and it is safe to assume 

 that the satisfaction of any normal desire also contributes in some degree to the 

 preservation of the life of the individual or of other individuals ... or to the 

 maintenance of society, or both," ibid., p. 250. 



• Ibid., pp. 240 f. 



