SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 325 



organized life and one so manifestly helpful to its members that 

 it will increase by the power of attraction and by the spread of 

 its principles and methods by reflective imitation on the part of 

 other groups so situated that these principles and methods are 

 practically imitable, and (2) by seeking to function as efficiently 

 as possible in a more inclusive group; i. e., to find or make its 

 place in a still larger organization. Its intrinsic goodness 1 may 

 be determined by social judgment, its extrinsic goodness by its 

 efficiency as a member of a more inclusive organization and by its 

 spread through reflective imitation on the part of other groups 

 likewise inspired by a purpose of attaining the highest possible 

 success measured in terms of social well-being. 



This social philosophy called social-personalism includes the 

 following elements: — 



I. The supreme worth of the individual because he is the high- 

 est expression of cosmic evolution as measured by his creative 

 activity in the line of active material and spiritual adaptation, the 

 former giving him power to coerce nature in the line of minister- 

 ing to his needs, the latter giving him power (a) to react on society 

 by imitative variation, innovation and suggestion; (b) to in- 

 fluence men in the interest of self-satisfaction; (c) to form ideals 

 and conform or adapt his life progressively to them; (d) to win 

 his fellow-men by example and persuasion, to the acceptance of 

 his ideals and so restore the social equilibrium disturbed by his 

 creative variation from the standards of the group, and (e) in 

 conjunction with others, to compel social adaptation on the part 

 of social laggards and the anti-social. 



II. The individual goal of self-development and social efficiency. 

 The first is called for (1) because of the intrinsic value of person- 

 ality, and (2) as a basis for passive and active adaptation both on 

 the part of the individual and of society, and the second is called 

 for to give specific direction to self -development and activity; 

 i. e., it is not mere self -development that makes for individual 

 well-being and social strength, but the kind of development that 

 fits the individual for the place in social life that he can fill 

 supremely well according to his capacity. This goal of social 



1 For use of the terms intrinsic and extrinsic, see Palmer, op. cit., pp. 18 f. 



