56 The Biological Errors 



rise to the whole compHcated system of distribu- 

 tion and transportation, to the manufacture of 

 agricultural instruments, the building of rail- 

 roads and ships, stockyards and canals. It has 

 led to the process of specialization and the division 

 of labour. First man, gathers the fruits which 

 he eats directly, then he makes a tool with which 

 to reach the fruits, then he makes a second 

 tool with which to manufacture the first, and 

 so on through an infinite number of inventions to 

 all the wonders of modern scientific research and 

 discovery. 



It is difficult to imagine a more colossal error 

 than is committed by the philosophy of force when 

 it disregards all this infinite struggle of man 

 against his physical environment and concentrates 

 all its attention upon the struggle of man against 

 man. The biological error involved is like that 

 which was committed by the old political economy, 

 which considered solely the secondary phenomena 

 of exchange between men, and left out of account 

 all considerations of the primary phenomena of 

 production and of the adaptation of the environ- 

 ment to man's needs. 



When this "immemorial warfare of man against 

 Nature,"^ is brought to the attention of the 

 "social Darwinists, " they go so far as to deny that 

 the relations between man and his physical en- 

 vironments can be described by the word struggle. 

 Thus Mr. E. d'Eichthal protests against applying 



' William James, Memories and Studies, p. 288. 



