170 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 
sion from the standpoint of fatalistic determinism. If he had 
said the last word the task of the social philosopher would be hard 
indeed because heartless. ‘To rob people of the illusions of hope 
and delusions of religious belief without providing a better sub- 
stitute may be in harmony with science, but surely not with 
pragmatic philosophy. 
Gustav RaTZENHOFER (1842-1904) 
Interests 
Social evolution with Ratzenhofer is to be explained as a 
process of progressive adaptation in conformity with law, yet it 
is not to be explained in the mechanical terms of attraction within 
and antagonism between “‘ heterogen ” groups resulting in anni- 
hilation, modification, and new combinations of elements, as with 
Gumplowicz, but rather as a process by which the original 
power, the “‘ Urkraft” or “ Ursache”’ is able to come to ever 
increasing self-expression and self-realization under the limita- 
tions of organic structure and physical environment. 
The means by which this “ Urkraft ” works in and through 
organic nature is termed Interest. ‘“ Every form of phenomena 
from heavenly body to atom, and every organism is a part of the 
original force with an interest appropriate to its particular de- 
velopment. . . . These form the principle of creation.” 2 
There are two kinds of consciousness, pure consciousness, i. e., 
the undifferentiated “‘ Urkraft ” as it exists in every creature, and 
the organic consciousness or the differentiated “ Urkraft ” that 
has struggled up through the evolutionary process to that self- 
consciousness which has its highest expression in adult, civilized 
man.’ This endeavor on the part of the Urkraft to come to the 
largest and fullest experience of life is the cause of differences 
between species.* 
The Urkraft and the inherent (anhaftende) or inborn (ange- 
borene) interest are the two principles of creation, working to- 
1 Die Sociologische Erkenntnis, pp. 24, 28, 29, 39 f. 
2 Ibid., p. 28. 
3 Ibid.,p. 26. Cf. p. 54. 
4 Tbid., pp. 28, 29. 
