Page:Philosophical Review Volume 19.djvu/439

425 be called 'mechanical'—as opposed to purposeful or intelligent. From the same point of view the process of selective attention, involved deeply in every logical association of ideas, is 'mechanical,’ since from the swarm of competing ideas only those are selected that, by reason of their momentarily useful connection with other ideas, are pertinent to the controlling interest or guiding complex of ideas which controls the forming judgment. If we look to the mere swarm of ideas and neglect the organic relationship between the guiding complex and the elements, which, with reference to the latter, find place in the logical association, the selection seems 'mechanical,' or determined by the strongest idea or impulse, most recent association, etc. If we single out the fact that the elements obtain their individuality and significance only by reference to the complex, the latter becomes purposive and the selection 'teleological.' One process is the obverse of the other; or, we take a structural view in the one case, in the other a dynamical view of the same function.

Similarly with reference to natural selection, whether in the sphere of human conduct or of animal activity. If we look to the aggregate of individuals, natural selection seems mechanically to determine the survival only of those which possess certain characters of utility to the species, the individual as individual counting for nothing. Survival is then to the strongest, but strength will usually lie in the possession of those characters which are of service to the species. If, however, we reflect that the species is not, after all, an entity, but a group of individuals possessing certain relatively fixed structural and functional characters, which in competition secure their survival, conformity to a type seems equally the condition of individuality. It is only the occupation of a favorable locality, the possession of useful organs of offence or of defence, etc., that enable the organism to survive at all, and these appertain to it by inheritance. Were there no uniformities, no grouping of characters about a mean, these would be withdrawn.

(2) A second objection to the application of natural selection to conduct is that in human society progress is for the most part