viii ARISTOCRACY AND E VOL UT1ON 



PAGE 



The answer will be found in the fact just referred to that social 



science attempts to answer two distinct sets of question- : . 12 



and one set namely, the speculative it has answered with great 



success; ........ 12 



it has failed only in attempting to answer practical questions . . 13 



Now the phenomena with which it has dealt successfully are phenomena 



of social aggregates, considered as wholes ; . . . . 13 



but the practical problems of to-day, with which it has dealt unsuccess- 

 fully, arise out of the conflict between different parts of aggregates 1 5 



Social science has failed as a practual guide because it has not recog- 

 nised this distinction ; ...... 16 



and hence arise most of the errors of the political philosophy of this 



century ........ 16 



CHAPTER II 



THE ATTEMPT TO MERGE THE GREAT MAN IN 

 THE AGGREGATE 



Whatever may be done by some men, or classes of men, sociologists 



are at present accustomed to attribute to man . . . 17 



\ Mr. Kidd's Social Evolution, for instance, is based entirely on this 



procedure ........ 17 



He quotes with approval two other writers who have been guilty of it ; 18 



who both attribute to man what is done by only a few men ; . . 19 



and the consequences of their reasoning are ludicrous ... 20 



Mr. Kidd's reasoning itself is not less ludicrous. The first half of his 

 argument is that religion prompts the few to surrender advantages 

 to the many, which, if they chose to do so, they could keep . 21 



The second half is that the many could have taken these advantages 

 from the few, and that religion alone prevented them from 

 doing so . . . . . . .21 



This contradiction is entirely due to the fact that, having first divided 

 the social aggregate into two classes, he then obliterates his divi- 

 sion, and thinks of them both as " man " . . . . 22 



Mr. Kidd's confusion is the result of no accidental error. It is the 



inevitable result of a radically fallacious method ;. . . 24 



and of this method the chief exponent is Mr. Herbert Spencer, . 24 



as a short summary of his arguments will show ... 25 



