8 4 



It suffices to state precisely the two funda- 

 mental theses the theses of classic law and 

 economics and the thesis of economic and 

 juridical socialism to decide thus without 

 further discussion this first point of the 

 controversy : in all cases the theory of 

 evolution is in perfect, incontestable agree- 

 ment with the inductions of socialism, and it 

 is, on the contrary, in opposition to the 

 affirmations of those who believe in economic 

 and juridical fixity. 



marvellous exception in the whole universe) absolute 

 free will. 



Modern physio-psychology refuses to man every kind of 

 free will in the name of the laws of natural causation. 



There are found in an intermediate position those who, 

 tvhilst recognising that the free will of man is not abso- 

 lute, maintain that we must at least admit a little free 

 will because, otherwise, there is neither merit nor 

 demerit, virtue, nor vice, etc. 



I dealt with this question in my first work : Teoria dell' 

 imputabilitd e negazione de libero arbitrio (Florence, 1878, 

 out of print), and in chap. iii. of my Criminal Sociology. 



I only mention it here to show that even in the eco- 

 nomic social question, the struggle presents itself in the 

 same conditions, and that one can, therefore, predict a 

 similar, final solution. 



The true Conservative inspired with metaphysical 

 tradition keeps to the ancient moral or economic ideas 

 in all their absolutism : he is at least logical. 



The determinist, in the name of science, holds ideas 

 diametrically opposed in the domain of psychology as in 

 that of the economic or legal sciences. 



The eclectic, in politics as in psychology, in political 

 economy as in law, is at bottom a Conservative, but he 

 thinks he evades difficulties because he makes some partial 

 concessions and saves appearances. But if eclecticism is 

 an attitude personally convenient, it is like hybridism, 

 sterile, and neither life nor science owes it anything. 



Thus socialists logically claim that the political parties 

 are after all two in number : individualists (conservatives, 

 progressives, radicals) and socialists. 



