SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 33 1 



The club, the religious sect, the political party, the social 

 institution of every sort which would succeed must likewise adapt 

 itself to its environment, — so, too, the sovereign group. But 

 mere survival should not be the goal, but this, modified by the 

 ideal of functioning in a more inclusive unity; and while these are 

 most frequently in harmony they are not always so. The welfare 

 of the group at times calls for the sacrifice of the individual; it 

 may call for the sacrifice of a club, a sect, a party, an institution. 

 The welfare of humanity may call for the sacrifice of a sovereign 

 group. All these unities and all forms of associational life are 

 means to the attainment of the one supreme goal, — the well- 

 being of the greatest number of rational individuals including not 

 only the present but future generations. 



Professor Bowne holds with good reason that well-being has two 

 constituent factors, outward fortune and inner worth and peace.^ 

 Emphasis on material progress may produce the outward fortune 

 but destroy the sense of worth and peace which alone makes Hfe 

 worth Hving for the individual. Emphasis on the subjective side 

 may lead to such neglect of material welfare as to result in in- 

 dividual and social stagnation and decay. Both elements must 

 have place in a social philosophy that shall satisfy life conditions 

 and inspire to that individual and social activity that shall attain 

 ultimately the coveted goal. 



No words are better fitted to conclude this discussion than those 

 which bring to a close Professor Giddings' Principles of Sociology: 

 " A social being, the normally organized man returns to society 

 with usury the gifts wherewith he has been by society endowed; 

 and this truth will be the starting point of the ethical teaching of 

 coming years. Personality cannot live within itself to perish 

 with the individual life. It goes forth into the everlasting Hfe of 

 man. And so, little by little, age by age, society, which has 

 created man, is by man transformed. Of supreme importance in 

 this work is the influence of those few transcendent minds whose 

 genius pierces the unknown; of those pioneers of thought and 

 conduct who dare to stand alone in untrodden ways; of those 

 devoted lovers of their kind who, often in obloquy and pain, 



1 Principles of Ethics, p. 304. 



