SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 329 



merits of the group in being reflectively imitated. Professor 

 Carver asserts that the only way the Kingdom of God can come 

 throughout the earth is by the possession of the earth by the 

 group that accepts the " gospel of the productive Ufe," and that 

 the religion of this group will thus be demonstrated to be the 

 true religion. In contrast we beheve that the Kingdom of God 

 will come by the spread, through reflective imitation, of the 

 achievements of the groups setting the best example of social 

 organization and collective welfare, and that the "gospel of social- 

 personalism " working by purposeful idealization , innovation y 

 imitation and exempli/action will demonstrate its superiority over 

 any form of deterministic monism or the gospel of the productive 

 Kfe as interpreted by Professor Carver. 



This test of the truth of social philosophy, however, is so indefi- 

 nite and far distant as to seem of little present value, but a con- 

 sistent social philosophy thus tested, while desirable, is not 

 indispensable. Most important is a working program of social 

 ameHoration that commends itself to the enlightened judgment of 

 the sociological elite ^ and this is provided in the four-fold doc- 

 trine of adaptation as worked out in this study, the apparent 

 truth of this social theory and of the social philosophy growing 

 out of it being revealed in its manifest utility as a key to the 

 understanding and solution of practical life problems. As 

 applied to social problems and conditions, the theory of adapta- 

 tion and the philosophy of social-personalism would seem to call 

 for emphasis on the following factors in associational hfe: — 



I. Production of material goods as the basis of life, growth 

 and cultural development; 



II. The elimination of waste land, waste labor and the waste 

 of natural resources; 



1 A group of persons with deep interest in a social problem and such training; 

 and experience as fits them for judgment, after mature deliberation frequently 

 attain an " insight " into an apparent solution of the problem that is akin to 

 intuition, indeed such collective insight might well be termed " social intuition."' 

 It is nothing supernatural or mystical or innate, but a short-circuited " insight " 

 based on experience and discussion, and accompanied by a feeling of satisfaction. 

 This is the tribunal of final authority with reference to an action worthy of imita- 

 tion, — though it may err. 



