Genetics and Ethics 321 



IV. The Individual and the Rack 



There is a larger freedom and a greater responsibility than 

 that which characterizes the individual. What the individual 

 cannot do because of weakness, ignorance, self interest, short 

 life, society can accomplish with the strength, wisdom and in- 

 terest of all, and through long periods of time. There are many 

 grades of organization from the bacterium to the vertebrate, 

 from the germ cell to the man. Society is the last and highest 

 grade of organization and its freedom and responsibility are to 

 those of the individual very much as the freedom and responsi- 

 bility of the developed man are to those of the germ cell from 

 which he came. Out of the correlations, differentiations and 

 integrations of persons has grown this higher type of organiza- 

 tion which we call society. 



1. The Conflict bctiveen the Freedom of the Individual and 

 the Good of Society. — The freedom, power and responsibility of 

 society are founded upon limitations of individual freedom for 

 the good of the race. Among social animals, such as ants and 

 bees, there is so much instinct and so little reason and freedom 

 that there is practically no conflict between the individual and 

 the race, but with the increase of intelligence and freedom among 

 men there has developed an increasing conflict between the indi- 

 vidual and society. So far as social limitations are artificial, sel- 

 fish, for the good of a few rather than of all, this conflict of the 

 ages, this struggle to be free has been the crowning glory of man- 

 kind. The struggle for freedom from tyranny in thought and 

 speech, in religion, government and industry, no less than for 

 the freedom that comes by the conquest of nature, is one of the 

 greatest achievements of the human race. 



But social restrictions on individual freedom are not all artifi- 

 cial and selfish. Some of them are absolutely essential not only to 

 the welfare but even to the continued existence of the race, and 

 when demands for individual freedom go to the extent of fight- 

 ing against these racial obligations they become a serious men- 

 ace to mankind. 



