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 218 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

logical standpoint, the standpoint of life, should be taken in the study of all civic and social questions. From this standpoint the civic problem is the problem of all-round civic well-being. The primary conditions of its solution are a purified and devel- oped democracy, and an integrated and intelligent civic con- sciousness. There is no immediate and final solution of the prob- lem, to be sure; but that is no excuse for inaction. Everything that leads to life should be desired and striven for, and the things which lead to destruction should be scorned and destroyed.