6o The Biological Errors 



within the surface of the animal — the body of the 

 animal — on the one side; and on the other side, the 

 surrounding environment. . . . Life is the struggle it- 

 self between the body of the being and the surround- 

 ings. . . . The immediate phenomena of the struggle 

 take place between the individual and its surround- 

 ings much more often than between one individual 

 and another individual. The direct struggle is the 

 struggle of man against his environment ; this struggle 

 is life. * 



Thus the science of biology, on which the phi- 

 losophy of force relies for its proof that war is a 

 biological necessity, decides not for it but against 

 it. Biology, in demonstrating that life is the 

 struggle against the physical environment, teaches 

 us to see in this struggle the principal phenome- 

 non, while the struggle between individuals of 

 the same species is an accessory phenomenon 

 of subsidiary importance. Biology thus restores 

 things to their proper proportions. It obliges 

 sociology to consider before everything else the 

 relations of man with his physical environment, 

 and forces it to rid itself of the social myopia that 

 has fallen upon the "social Darwinists." It 

 compels it to recognize at the threshold of its task, 

 that there is an external world, infinite in extent, 

 the study of which ought to take the precedence 

 over all other considerations. 



The same disregard of the existence of the uni- 

 verse leads to a misinterpretation of the term 



\La luUe universelle, Paris, 1906, pp. 73, 283. 



