ACTIVE SOCIAL ADAPTATION 2JI 



Passive adaptation (science) and active adaptation (production) go 

 together, reacting on each other constantly. The more easily one receives 

 impressions from without the more easily does he act on that which is ex- 

 ternal. . . . The struggle for existence results in the survival of the most 

 apt. Now, most apt from the point of view of psychology is synonymous 

 with most intelligent. . . . Man has conquered the animals because he was 

 able to adapt himself more quickly to his environment than other living 

 species, or (what is exactly the same thing) because he was the most intelli- 

 gent. 



What one calls intellectual culture is also a form of adaptation to the 

 environment. Cultured man possesses a more or less complete representa- 

 tion of the universe and sums up in himself the mental labors of humanity. 

 His horizon is greatly extended in space and time and this means that he is 

 capable of representing to himself a great number of images and states of 

 consciousness. . . . The struggle for existence assures the victory to the 

 individuals and societies who possess the most exact conception of the uni- 

 verse. 1 



Novicow goes on to interpret life in terms of rhythm, and 

 adaptation as " eurhythm " and holds that as the change from 

 anarchic movements to those that are co-ordinated requires time, 

 so adaptation, physical, mental and social, also requires time. 



The various forms of struggle are analyzed, — the physiological, 

 the economic, the political, the intellectual and those which arise 

 in the domain of sentiment, — and these are shown to form a hier- 

 archy, the most rapid, the most complete, and the most pleasure- 

 giving being in the realms of mind and heart, these latter varieties, 

 too, being the last to be attained. In the physiological realm 

 man has passed from cannibalism (absorption) through murder, 

 plunder and dispossession of territory (elimination), through wars 

 for the possession of women and slaves to provide satisfaction of 

 physiological interests, on to that highest form of struggle be- 

 tween the sexes known as love. " All love is a combat because in 

 all love there is one being who subordinates his life to the ends of 

 the other, hence a vanquished and a vanquisher." 2 



The physiological 3 and economic struggles 4 are practically the 

 same on the lower levels of social life but the latter differentiates 

 as society progresses and finally enters the domain of politics 

 taking the form of invasions, demands for concessions, 6 etc. 



1 Les Luttes, p. 42. * Ibid., pp. 73 ff. 



» Ibid., p. 71. 6 Ibid., pp. 82 ff. 



3 Ibid., pp. 64 ff. 



