292 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 
change as in the following: “ The accumulation of changes in the 
rational principle is progress; of utilities, practical progress; of 
truths, intellectual progress. Moral progress and aesthetic prog- 
ress do not come about essentially by origination and rational 
diffusion. Progress in these departments is usually the conse- 
quence of material or intellectual advancement.” ! 
In his Foundations of Sociology he differentiates progress, 
change and adaptation as follows: ‘‘ Change means any qualita- 
tive variation, whereas progress means amelioration, perfection- 
ment. The oneis movement; the other is movement in the 
direction of advantage. Progress is better adaptation to given 
conditions. Change may be adaptation, — at first, perhaps, very 
imperfect, — to new conditions.” The difference is illustrated as 
follows: “‘ When a mammal thrust northward gets a heavier coat 
of hair, or a bird acquires the nest-building instinct with the 
advent of a rodent that destroys her eggs on the ground, we have a 
case of adaptation. Now, this way of interpreting change is 
becoming ever more helpful to the student of society... . 
Movements that seem regressive are equally ambiguous. Mili- 
tarism is hardly a regress when a people finds itself menaced by 
the approach of an aggressive neighbor. ... The growth of 
one-man power is degeneration if it is caused by a lowered citizen- 
ship; it is only adaptation if the facilities for focusing public 
opinion have so improved that the cruder checks on the executive 
have ceased to be necessary. I conclude, then, that social 
dynamics ought to drop such vague and dubious conceptions as 
progress and regress, and address itself to the simple fact of social 
change.” * 
Now progress as used in these and other examples is defined very 
much as we have defined adaptation, and adaptation, he says, is 
becoming ever more helpful as a way of interpreting change. In- 
deed in none of these examples is there any necessary distinction. 
We find that he uses adaptation in a way that would seem to 
make it the standard of progress in his discussion of “‘ the genesis 
and evolution of ethical elements ” * where he holds that some- 
thing very like the struggle and survival principle of biological 
1 Social Psychology, p. 286. * Foundations, pp. 185-189. * Social Control, ch.XXV. 
