SUMMARY OF CHAPTERS XV 



CHAPTER V 

 Conflict and Peogebss 



PAGES 



Capital importance of selection in organic life — ^Universal nature 

 of the conflict engendered by excessive fertility — Conflict is as 

 keen in human society as everywhere else — Social evolution 

 brings new forces into play in this conflict — Extermination of 

 savage races by civilised races — Innate tendency of life is to 

 regress — Selection alone is capable of preventing this regression 

 — ^Fundamental law of life is that of expansion — Customs, co- 

 operation, legal and moral codes, are all of them expressions of 

 the expansion of society — ^Need of expansion inherent to aU races 

 — This need can be satisfied only by those races which are power- 

 ful enough to satisfy it. 



This desire for expansion cannot be checked by reason — 

 The expansion which is imphed by the very fact of life implies 

 in its turn insatiability — ^Mr. Benjamia Kidd on the rational 

 and ultra-rational sanctions of progress — Impossibility of 

 accepting the theory of Mr. Kidd on the function of religious 

 beUef as an ultra-rational sanction for progress — Progress is 

 necessitated by the very conditions of life, and demands neither 

 a rational nor an ultra-rational sanction, for it is implied by 

 aU life as we know it — ^Individual interests may be antagonistic 

 to the interests of the race — Nevertheless the individual, even 

 if he emancipate himself, is unable to suppress the conditions 

 of conflict indispensable to progress, for in suppressing the 

 latter he must suppress life itself as we know it — As we know 

 it, the notion of life has as a corollary the notion of conflict 353-385 



CHAPTER VI 

 Concluding Remarks 



The altruistic influences at work in our Western civilisation are 

 very feeble ; and, when they manifest themselves, their influ- 

 ence is generally harmful — Are ethical influences shaping the 

 course of social evolution ?— Bernstein on the increase of the 

 proprietary classes — The increase of social wealth is not due to 

 ethical influences — The notions of conflict and altruism are 

 mutually exclusive. 



Absence of ethical influences in international politics — The 

 hegemony of Europe — Europe and the United States — The 

 white races and the yellow race. 



