230 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 
In the exposition of his theory as applied to social evolution he 
has made large use of principles elaborated by Gumplowicz, 
Ratzenhofer, Tarde and others with some modifications and 
additions. The process is almost entirely one of passive spiritual 
adaptation described by such terms as social assimilation, social 
karyokinesis (analogous to cross-breeding), compound assimila- 
tion and pacific assimilation, all working in accordance with the 
principle of synergy.!| In this discussion natural selection is 
given a prominent place but reinterpreted and modified in view 
of psychical and social factors that enter into the higher phase of 
the cosmic process under consideration.” 
His discussion of the dynamic factors of social progress forms a 
transition from passive to active adaptation. The first of these 
dynamic principles is “ difference of potential,” this term taken 
over from mechanics and illustrated by sexual reproduction in 
biology, being used by analogy to describe that phase of the social 
process which most sociologists today are explaining in terms of 
social suggestion and imitation. The second principle, “ inno- 
vation’ is interpreted also in terms of mechanics, following 
Tarde, but even more in terms of biology, having its biological 
analogue in the “ sport,” or fortuitous variation which our author 
considers to be the chief method in the origin of species.3 The 
1 Pure Sociology, pp. 171 f. 
2 The prominence given to the doctrine of adaptation is seen by the following: 
“Tf the individual is at all adjusted to his environment his action will contribute 
in some degree either to the preservation or the continuation of life. At the lower 
animal stages . . . all desires are adapted to the needs of the creature and their 
satisfaction conduces to the life of either the individual or the species. Any con- 
tinuous tendency to the contrary would result in the death of the former or the 
extinction of the latter. It is not really otherwise with society. We have fully 
shown how everything in society works for the conservation of the group and the 
race, and how the wayward tendencies of mankind have been subjected to natural 
and spontaneous restraints in the interest of social order. This social adaptation 
is well-nigh as complete as organic adaptation, and it would be impossible for any 
considerable number of men to persist in anti-social acts for any considerable time 
without disrupting society altogether. .. . Human desires are, therefore, more 
or less completely adjusted to individual and social needs, and it is safe to assume 
that the satisfaction of any normal desire also contributes in some degree to the 
preservation of the life of the individual or of other individuals ... or to the 
maintenance of society, or both,” ibid., p. 250. 
3 Ibid., pp. 240 f. 
