Page:Philosophical Review Volume 5.djvu/683

667 able to produce 'specific' characteristics. (7) If it be asserted that the changes produced by the first two of these are not stable, the answer is (a) the question must not be begged; (b) it is admitted (by Weismann, etc.) that the factors in question may act on the material of heredity itself; (c) there are no 'stable' species, anyhow. (8) It is very neatly shown that the ultra-Darwinian view seeks to draw a hard and fast line between varieties, species, and genera, and claims utility only for the specific characteristics. But that is a mere survival of the pre-Darwinian belief in the fixity of species. The true lesson of Darwin was to teach that species are only pronounced varieties on the one hand, and incipient genera on the other.

Nevertheless, Mr. Romanes in no wise wishes to combat the theory of Natural Selection itself. On the contrary, he hopes he is rendering it no unimportant service by relieving it "of a parasitic growth, an accretion of false logic."

In this book Dr. Pioger completes the outline of empirical philosophy presented in his earlier works: Le monde physique (Alcan, 1892), La vie et la pensée (Alcan, 1893). The standpoint of the writer is mechanical and biological. In this, as in all works by members of the biological school, metaphor and analogy play an important part. Every resemblance between facts in different spheres of knowledge is seized upon with avidity, while essential differences are minimized or ignored altogether. As a result, the elaboration of a social theory is rendered comparatively easy, for the real complexity of social problems is overlooked.

For Dr. Pioger, the statement that society is an organism, is not merely a metaphor, but the expression of a literal fact. The national mind is a real mind. The public will is not merely an accumulation of individual volitions. It is the unification of those volitions,—a resultant arising from their conflict, just as a voluntary action is itself a resultant of a conflict of desires, tendencies, etc. Social life is a unification of individuals in a social body, as the physiological life is the unification of anatomical elements in a living organism. Organization and solidarity are the essential conditions of the life of a society. From that organization spring collectivity all those reciprocal relations which result from the spontaneous arrangement of men according to their needs and aptitudes. Collectivity, or the dependence of individuals, is produced by that plasticity of human nature which enables men to adapt themselves to the most diverse conditions of life, and so makes possible the differentiation of individuals, and their arrangement in classes according to their wants or their abilities. Society exists only by the incessant action and reaction of internal and external influences, continually producing new adaptations and new functions. These are rendered permanent by organization, and so are transmitted from generation to generation, though