Economic Rivalry or Competition 221 



the play of elements which constitute the thought of self 

 as a ' socius ' or personal companion to others. 



Personal rivalry is, therefore, sharply distinguished 

 from biological struggle for existence. The latter is 

 operative under the law of physical reproduction, guided 

 by natural selection with reference to utility in a biological 

 environment. This, on the contrary, is operative in a 

 social environment where social tradition through imitation 

 and invention are the conserving and ordering factors 

 where the environment is psychological and moral, and 

 where the criterion of utility yields to that of individual 

 choice, selection, reflection, and, it may be, caprice. 



This is not to say, however, that personal rivalry may 

 not be involved in biological survival. It is evident that 

 the capacity for personal psychologically motived struggle 

 may be of critical utility to a species, and so its possessors 

 may be * naturally ' selected. But true as that is, such a 

 case still remains one of biological struggle, and is subject 

 to its laws. The purely social rivalry, as such, remains a 

 different phenomenon, and cannot be subsumed under the 

 biological. 



§ 4. Economic Rivalry or Competition 



In industrial and commercial competition we find an- 

 other form of Rivalry — that mentioned third above. It 

 is defined by Hadley (the writer's Diet, of Philos. and 

 Psychol.) as 'the effort of different individuals engaged 

 in the same line of activity each to benefit himself, gen- 

 erally at the others' expense, by rendering increased ser- 

 vice to outside parties.' 



Two typical forms of it should be distinguished: {a) 

 competition of individuals, which we may call *free' 



