Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/559

 REVIEWS 539

tual manifestations of life, which, however, can be nothing else than the product of morphological facts in the organism, the undeniable con- necting link between the organic and the social world is found — a transitionary stage which we by no means merely hypothetically assume, but which we see unmistakably proven every hour in ourselves and our environment. That among all creatures differentiation in the case of mankind is so much more manifold and complicated is due to the fact that man is himself the paramount product of differentiation of the organic world. We may not compare man with the animal species somatically nearest him. For he has, even in the lowest races, passed through such a differentiation of his consciousness, that is, of his intellect, that between him and the most highly developed animal world there exists an unbridgeable chasm. Man has been differen- tiated from the animal world through certain capabilities. Therefore the social differentiation of men happens in great part in the territory of interests which stand in a very mediate, even if fundamental, con- nection with physiological interest. The social activities of animals, on the other hand, rest merely upon immediately operating physiological impulses. To this circumstance is to be ascribed also the fact that the differentiation of human communities is not merely the resultant of active physiological interests. Already to individual interests belong thought-associations, built upon ideas, whereby man subjects his choice of comrades to cautious, or at least instinctive, reflections. In so far as such spring merely from individual interest, they lead the man back to the demands of his physiological interest. He who belongs to his social group only conditionally and unreliably becomes an egoist. But in so far as such reflections spring from the interest of the species, or finally from social interest, they guide the man to moral renuncia- tion of self, whereby he receives impetus to coordinate or even subor- dinate his individual weal to that of his community. This is an evolutionary phenomenon, which points to the underlying principle of all creation. In the interest of the species is shown the effort of primi- tive force to resist the degeneration caused through differentiation and variation — a phenomenon which is determinative for the question as to the inheritance of acquired characteristics. The production of unifying mutual relationships manifests itself in the face of the indi- vidualistic atomizing impetus as indispensable for the natural develop- ment of society, just as the biological degenerations caused through variation are brought back to the normal of the species through the continuity of the germ plasm — unless compelling causes exist in the