Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/177

 ETHICS OF THE COMPETITIVE PROCESS 163

belonged to his work by a conception of religion and of its social value almost wholly erroneous, and to have emphasized this error by an attempted historical analysis of the progress of western civilization which, aside from the errors arising from the false premises regarding the character and influence of religious beliefs, displays a frequent ignorance or omission of important facts.

The work is injured also by the assertion, obviously untrue in fact and unnecessary indeed to his own thesis, of an unavoid- able and complete opposition between the interests of the indi- vidual and of the society of which he is a member. Thus in one place he says: "The interests of the social organism and those of the individuals composing it at any time are actually antago- nistic ; they can never be reconciled, they are inherently and essentially irreconcilable." In justice to Kidd it should be said that he elsewhere qualifies the above statement to the extent of implying that some individuals may have an interest in the social welfare. This, while convicting him of inconsistency, relieves him at any rate of absurdity.

Let us stop for a moment, however, to see what is meant by the declaration that the interests of even a majority of the indi- viduals of the present day are necessarily antagonistic to those of the society which they constitute. This, even in its qualified form, is a most serious and startling assertion. The general argu- ment of Kidd shows that he means by this declaration that all individuals are by nature selfish ; that, rationally, they conceive, or should conceive, their highest welfare to consist in material self- satisfaction ; and that consequently the welfare of future genera- tions cannot possibly enter as a reasonable factor into the determination of their conduct or ideals. To the statement of this ethical principle is joined the assertion that race or social progress is possible only through a competitive process which involves misery and destruction to a great majority of the par- ticipating individuals. From these two assertions the principle is deduced that, were the men of the present day to act from purely rational motives, they would put a stop to this competi- tive struggle by the institution of some sort of socialistic scheme which would benefit themselves, but which would at once put an