Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/163

 ETHICS OF THE COMPETITIVE PROCESS 149

For, as he conceives it, any political control necessarily checks pro tanto the beneficent operation of competition.

It will be seen that in this system which we have outlined the competitive regime among men is defended upon both economic and ethical grounds. As regards the manner in which the personal sense of moral obligation is declared to have arisen, we cannot, of course, give our assent. We do not believe it possible to create, by means of the evolutionary process, a prod- uct the elements of which are not conceived to have been present in the material from which it is supposed to have evolved. We do not hold it a logical sequitur that because a cer- tain law of development is discovered to govern the growth of sentient beings, therefore it is a law which should or ought to govern. Nor do we hold it possible either by means of indi- vidual or race experience to evolve a true altruistic sentiment out of originally selfish feelings. But this is obviously not the place for a criticism of such a view. We shall, however, have occasion later on to show that, even apart from these matters, the system of political ethics advocated by Mr. Spencer exhibits characteristics which can be squared neither with his own nor with any other principles of right and justice.

In order to arrive at his individualistic results Mr. Spencer impliedly maintains the following assertions : first, that a regime of practically unrestricted competition between sub-human indi- viduals is necessary for, and, in fact, does always lead to, the improvement of their species ; second, that in this process the interest of the individual may ruthlessly be subordinated to that of the species ; third, that what is true of sub-human species is equally true of human beings. These assertions are necessarily implied in the position taken by Mr. Spencer, although in fact he has not proved or attempted to prove the truth of all of them.

As regards the first assertion, all that evolutionary biologists have shown is that, as a matter of fact, a fierce struggle for existence is waged between individuals of the sub-human species, and that the outcome of this has been the gradual development of more complex and better integrated types of life. But this