The Individual and Society; or Psychology and Sociology

The individual loses his initiative, his talents are unemployed, he is reduced to the average, and society itself loses its best results.

But besides this, certain more questionable motives come forward. One of these is what I have called the desire for social place and station.

How in nature the adults protect the young, the married male his mate, the faithful dog his master!

The traditional contrast between individual and collective interests is largely artificial and mistaken.

Is there not really a self-seeking and plotting individual whose first interest is to serve himself, and who is largely anti-social in his habits and beliefs?

So man forms alliances, enters into compacts, makes up groups, selects leaders, arranges devices for division of parts and labor — all of which secures the advantages of collective action and counsel, replacing the single-handed struggle of the individual.

The individual cannot become a full adult and a capable person in any sense without becoming also by the same movement social and solid with his fellows. It then remains to ask: What is still true in the theory of individualism?

individual cannot become a full adult and a capable person in any sense without becoming also by the same movement social and solid with his fellows. It then remains to ask: What is still true in the theory of individualism?

The individual cannot become a full adult and a capable person in any sense without becoming also by the same movement social and solid with his fellows.

theories of the origin of instinct the reader may consult my work, "Development and Evolution," and also the little book already referred to, called "Darwin and the Humanities."