FROM PASSIVE TO ACTIVE ADAPTATION 213 
as Ward saw, is fatalism. According to this theory, when I 
awake in the morning some sense impression from without, some 
idea-suggestion from within, or some organic need sets going a 
psychical process which with its correlated activities fills the 
period of conscious activity during my waking hours. Every 
phase of that process is strictly determined. If I deliberate on 
a proposed course of action, I can neither prolong the deliberation 
nor bring it to a close until the proper combination has been 
reached which results in action. Iam buta part of a machine, — 
a part, however, that has become conscious, — and strange to say 
deluded into the belief that Iam more than a mere machine. Man 
is saved from despair by this illusion. 
Now the ultimate solution of this whole question is meta- 
physical, hence outside the domain of social philosophy, yet one 
phase of it belongs to our consideration. What are the relative 
consequences of consistent monism and libertarianism (of some 
sort) on human well-being and group success ?_ Let us suppose 
two competing social groups. In one we have all the adults 
consistent monists believing that every thought and act is a part 
of a strictly deterministic system; that at any crucial point in 
individual life the ultimate decision might have been foreseen by 
one who knew all the elements within the mind and in the envi- 
ronment-without. The only responsibility of the individual, then, 
is to society. The feeling of responsibility is a purely social 
product. In the other group, while granting that heredity and 
environment determine very largely that character which in turn 
determines choice, there is still belief that by a sheer act of will 
the individual may tap new reservoirs of energy which will give 
him some new grip on life and life’s tasks.1_ The people in this 
group believe that there is at least power to prolong or close a 
mental conflict involving a great decision; this decision, in turn, 
having the potency of changing the whole current of life. Which 
group will be most productive, increase most rapidly in wealth, 
numbers, power ? Which group will win out in the long run ? 
1 This view is very like that of James, Energies of Men, of Royce, The Spirit 
of Modern Philosophy, Lecture XII, and The World and the Individual, Lecture X, 
also of Bowne, Personalism. 
