Introduction to the Science of Sociology Part 78

7. What examples of compet.i.tion occur to you in human or social relations? In what respects are they (a) alike, (b) different, from compet.i.tion in plant communities?

8. To what extent is biological compet.i.tion present in modern human society?

9. Does compet.i.tion always lead to increased specialization and higher organization?

10. What evidences are there in society of the effect of compet.i.tion upon specialization and organization?

11. What do you understand Crile to mean by the sentence: "In every case the fate of each creature seems to have been staked upon one mechanism"?

What is this mechanism with man?

12. Do you think that Crile has given an adequate explanation of the evolution of mind?

13. Is there a difference in the character of the struggle for existence of animals and of man?

14. What is the difference in compet.i.tion within a community based on likenesses and one based on diversities?

15. Compare the ecological concept "reaction" with the sociological conception "control."

16. What do you understand by the expression "the reaction of a community is usually more than the sum of the reaction of the component species and individuals"? Explain.

17. How far can the terms migration, ecesis, and compet.i.tion, as used by Clements in his a.n.a.lysis of the invasion of one plant community by another, be used in the a.n.a.lysis of the process by which immigrants "invade" this country, i.e., migrate, settle, and are a.s.similated, "Americanized"?

18. What are the social forces involved in (a) internal, (b) foreign, migrations?

19. What do you understand by the term segregation? To what extent are the social forces making for segregation (a) economic, (b) sentimental? Ill.u.s.trate.

20. In what ways has immigration to the United States resulted in segregation?

21. Does the segregation of the immigrant in our American cities make for or against (a) compet.i.tion, (b) conflict, (c) social control, (d) accommodation, and (e) a.s.similation?

22. What are the factors producing internal migration in the United States?

23. In what sense is the drift to the cities a result of compet.i.tion?

24. What is Ripley's conclusion in regard to urban selection and the ethnic composition of cities?

25. What are the outstanding results of demographic segregation and social selection in the United States?

26. What, in your judgment, are the chief characteristics of inter-racial compet.i.tion?

27. To what extent do you agree with Walker's a.n.a.lysis of the social forces involved in race suicide in the United States?

28. In what specific ways is compet.i.tion now a factor in race suicide?

29. What will be the future effects of inter-racial compet.i.tion upon the ethnic stock of the American people?

30. "There is a sense in which much of the orthodox system of political economy is eternally true." Explain.

31. To what extent and in what sense is economic compet.i.tion unconscious?

32. What differences other than innate mental ability enter into compet.i.tion between different social groups and different persons?

33. Who are your compet.i.tors?

34. Of the existence (as identified persons) of what proportion of these compet.i.tors are you unconscious?

35. What is meant by compet.i.tive co-operation? Ill.u.s.trate. (See pp. 508, 558.)

36. What do you understand by the term "economic equilibrium"?

37. Is "economic equilibrium" identical with "social solidarity"? What is the relation, if any, between the two concepts?

38. To what extent does compet.i.tion make for a natural harmony of individual interests?

39. What did Adam Smith mean by "an invisible hand"?

40. "Civilization is the resultant not of conscious co-operation but of the unconscious compet.i.tion of individuals." Do you agree or disagree with this statement?

41. "By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it."

What is the argument for and against this position?

42. Why has the laissez-faire theory in economics been largely abandoned?

43. What do you understand by the term "freedom"? How far may freedom be identified with freedom of compet.i.tion?

44. Do you accept the conception of Bastiat that "compet.i.tion is liberty"?

45. How does money make for freedom? Does it make for or against co-operation? Are co-operation and compet.i.tion mutually antagonistic terms?

46. Under what circ.u.mstances do you have compet.i.tion between individuals and compet.i.tion between groups?

47. What do you understand by the statement that anarchism, socialism, and communism are based upon the ecological conceptions of society?

48. What is the difference between an opinion or a doctrine taken (a) as a datum, and (b) as a value?

49. From what point of view may the dependent, the delinquent, and the defective be regarded as "inner enemies"? Is this notion individualistic, socialistic, or how would you characterize it?

FOOTNOTES:

[180] Bastiat, Frederic, _Oeuvres completes_, tome VI, "Harmonies economiques," 9e edition, p. 381. (Paris, 1884.)

[181] Walker, Francis A., _Political Economy_, p. 92. (New York, 1887.)

[182] See chap. i, pp. 51-54.

[183] The introduction of the rabbit into Australia, where predatory compet.i.tors are absent, has resulted in so great a multiplication of the members of this species that their numbers have become an economic menace. The appearance of the boll weevil, an insect which attacks the cotton boll, has materially changed the character of agriculture in areas of cotton culture in the South. Scientists are now looking for some insect enemy of the boll weevil that will restore the equilibrium.

[184] Adapted from J. Arthur Thomson, _Darwinism and Human Life_, pp.