Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 5.djvu/517

 THE RA CE-PRESER VA TION DOGMA $01

the welfare of "the race," and that "the race" has become sub- ordinate to the individual (a truth further borne out by the fact that in the higher types the continuance of the life of the parent is indispensable to the life of the offspring), yet it is maintained that the "law of sacrifice" still holds, although reduced to "a minimum." Here that psychic factor is disregarded by which, metaphorically speaking, we can, and do, oppose the laws of nature, and through which (still speaking metaphorically) the preservation of the race, ceasing to be necessary, has become contingent. As this neglecting of an important fact affords a striking exemplification of the danger of generalizing the laws of life without having due regard to the changes wrought by the processes of evolution, I shall consider the subject a little more closely.

In passing from sub-human life to human life, we pass from the so-called instinct to intelligence. Since, from the natural- istic point of view, mental states are the concomitants of physio- logical processes, all of which may ultimately be identified with reflex actions, we may perhaps say that intelligence is simply a teleological instinct, inasmuch as it is, in a certain sense, an instinct conscious of its object, and whose promptings are due to a representation of that object. This aptitude of prevision introduces a very wide difference between the actions of the higher animals, especially of man, and the actions of the lower animals ; and a corresponding difference must be introduced in all scientific conclusions as to animal conduct, especially human conduct. Thus, because lower animals live until "nature" destroys them independently of their will (for such cases of suicide as that of scorpions seem to be disputed), it is not to be concluded that such is the law of all life, and that man cannot possess the desire for suicide, or that he is violating the laws of life when he takes away his own ; nor is it logical to conclude that life "is to be " preserved at all events. Similarly, from the fact that in the lower animal world the species is preserved, sometimes at the expense of individuals, we are not justified in concluding that species-preservation is a universal law, that it is the "obligation" of every man to attend to the preservation of