SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 329 
ments of the group in being reflectively imitated. Professor 
Carver asserts that the only way the Kingdom of God can come 
throughout the earth is by the possession of the earth by the 
group that accepts the “ gospel of the productive life,” and that 
the religion of this group will thus be demonstrated to be the 
true religion. In contrast we believe that the Kingdom of God 
will come by the spread, through reflective imitation, of the 
achievements of the groups setting the best example of social 
organization and collective welfare, and that the “ gospel of social- 
personalism ” working by purposeful idealization, innovation, 
imitation and exemplifaction will demonstrate its superiority over 
any form of deterministic monism or the gospel of the productive 
life as interpreted by Professor Carver. 
This test of the truth of social philosophy, however, is so indefi- 
nite and far distant as to seem of little present value, but a con- 
sistent social philosophy thus tested, while desirable, is not 
indispensable. Most important is a working program of social 
amelioration that commends itself to the enlightened judgment of 
the sociological élite ' and this is provided in the four-fold doc- 
trine of adaptation as worked out in this study, the apparent 
truth of this social theory and of the social philosophy growing 
out of it being revealed in its manifest utility as a key to the 
understanding and solution of practical life problems. As 
applied to social problems and conditions, the theory of adapta- 
tion and the philosophy of social-personalism would seem to call 
for emphasis on the following factors in associational life: — 
I. Production of material goods as the basis of life, growth 
and cultural development; 
II. The elimination of waste land, waste labor and the waste 
of natural resources; 
1 A group of persons with deep interest in a social problem and such training 
and experience as fits them for judgment, after mature deliberation frequently 
attain an “insight” into an apparent solution of the problem that is akin to 
intuition, indeed such collective insight might well be termed “ social intuition.” 
It is nothing supernatural or mystical or innate, but a short-circuited “ insight ” 
based on experience and discussion, and accompanied by a feeling of satisfaction. 
This is the tribunal of final authority with reference to an action worthy of imita- 
tion, — though it may err. 
