132 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 



Here, then, we seem at last to have found out what the true nature of 

 man's end is; and we see that that end is by its very nature a social one. It 

 is clear, too, that the end which we have now denned includes everything 

 which "we divine" as belonging to the highest good. It includes, indeed, 

 every one of the ends which have been previously enumerated. It includes 

 what we have described as the objective ends, — the realization of reason, 

 order and beauty in the world; for the realization of them is part of our work 

 in making our world intelligible and clear to ourselves. It includes also the 

 realization of life; for it is the fulfilment of that towards which our lives as 

 rational beings strive; and in the fulfilment of this for ourselves, there is 

 involved also the realization of the lives of other intelligent beings; since it 

 is only in the fulfilment of their intelligent nature that our own can receive 

 fulfilment. 1 



The social problem, as he sees it, is to discover the form of social 

 union in which, under given conditions, the progress will be most 

 rapid and most secure towards that good which we must regard 

 as the ultimate end. 2 He holds that, though diversity of inter- 

 ests leads to conflict, ultimately the good of the individual and 

 society are identical. 3 



In his practical program of meliorism, Mackenzie emphasizes 

 individual culture, the conquest of nature and right social rela- 

 tions, all these introducing what we have termed active adapta- 

 tion* 



The need of social control is due to the fact that 



progress towards a more complete mastery of nature is not necessarily a 

 progress towards more complete happiness for the following reasons : (i) As 

 the means of material well-being increase, population also increases, and the 

 struggle for existence becomes keener; (2) Human nature is not sufficiently 

 plastic to adapt itself continuously to the changing conditions of existence; 

 (3) Industrial progress brings with it an increasing freedom of competition, 

 and this adds to the keenness of the struggle; (4) Industrial progress tends 

 to reduce the working classes more and more to the condition of a prole- 

 tariate, and in that way militates directly against the happiness of the great 

 mass of population. 6 



by the lives of our fellow-men and in the works which they perform. ... No 

 attainment of the ideal of our rational nature is conceivable, except by our being 

 able to see the world as a system of intelligent beings who are mutually worlds 

 for each other. ... It is only in the lives of other human beings that we find a 

 world in which we can be at home. The society of other human beings is not 

 merely a means of bringing our own rational nature to clearness, but it is the only 

 object in relation to which such clearness can be attained," ibid., pp. 231-233. 



1 Introduction to Social Philosophy, p. 234. 2 Ibid., p. 237. 



3 Ibid., p. 236. * Ibid., p. 241. » Ibid., p. 307. 



