88 The Biological Errors 



The fourth biological error of the philosophy of 

 * force consists in its blindness to the true nature 

 of social struggles. According to this philosophy 

 they are based uniquely upon physiological 

 phenomena, such as collective homicide. This is 

 »-never the case. All social facts, without excep- 

 tion, can be reduced to psychic facts. All political 

 I * and social institutions are the results of ideas, and 

 the struggle which goes on is a struggle between 

 ideas. It is an illustration of how little social 

 thinking, even of the most elementary character, 

 is done by the human race, that so few persons 

 have grasped the truth, one of the primary axioms 

 in sociology, that the character of social institu- 

 tions depends upon the character of social ideas. 

 Social life in the last analysis is a series of actions 

 taken by a certain number of individuals. The 

 genesis of social institutions is exactly the same 

 as the genesis of individual action. In the case 

 of the individual, to take a common illustration, 

 suppose a man goes for a walk in Central Park. 

 This is only possible on one condition, that he 

 represents in his mind a picture of Central Park. 

 If this does not take place the idea of going for a 

 walk in the park does not come to him. Thus the 

 physiological movements made in walking through 

 the park can only be effected if they have been pre- 

 ceded by certain psychic movements. Everything 

 which eventually becomes a reality in action has 

 been first a mental representation, an ideal. In 

 society the process may be illustrated by a change 



