Instincts of the herd in peace and war / by W. Trotter.

  • Wilfred Trotter
Date:
[1916]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Instincts of the herd in peace and war / by W. Trotter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    28/224 page 24
    -M He called attention to the enlargement of the selective unit effected by the appearance of gre- gariousness, and to the fact that therefore within the group the action of natural selection becomes modified. This conception had, as is well known, escaped the insight of Haeckel, of Spencer, and of Huxley, and Pearson showed into what confusions in their treatment of the problems of society these three had been led by the oversight.1 For example may be mentioned the famous antithesis of the “ cosmical ” and the “ ethical ” processes expounded in Huxley’s Romanes Lecture. It was quite defi- nitely indicated by Pearson that the so-called ethical process, the appearance, that is to say, of altruism, is to be regarded as a directly instinctive product of gregariousness, and as natural, therefore, as any other instinct. These very clear and valuable conceptions do not seem, however, to have received from biologists the attention they deserved, and as far as I am aware their author has not continued further the exam- ination of the structure of the gregarious mind, which would undoubtedly have yielded in his hands further conclusions of equal value. We may next examine the attitude of a modern sociologist. I have chosen for this purpose the work of an American sociologist, Lester Ward, and propose briefly to indicate his position as it may be gathered from his book entitled “ Pure Sociology.” 2 1 “ Socialism and Natural Selection ” in “ The Chances of Death.” 2 Lester F. Ward, “ Pure Sociology : a Treatise on the Origin and Spontaneous Development of Society.” New York : The Macmillan Co. 1903. I do not venture to decide whether this work may be regarded as representative of orthodox sociology, if there be such a thing ; I have made the choice because of the author’s capacity for fresh and ingenious speculation and his obviously wide knowledge of sociological literature.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3