Value and Social Interpretation

Abstract

Biological presuppositions.-To understand the basis of value, we must first take account of the congenital organization of the will as indicated by instinctive capacity and temperament. The will as we find it is already canalized in the form of certain typical tendencies, which are of vital importance in the orientation of life to its environment. Instincts furnish the fundamental springs of action and interest. While much modified in the course of experience and organized into various patterns of sentiment and disposition, the instinctive impulse still furnishes the primal pressure of life. We cannot understand social association without taking into account such impulses as the tender emotion and gregariousness. They lie at the basis respectively of the two most fundamental institutions in human development, the family and the clan. In order to understand the zest of competition and rivalry in human affairs, we must hearken back to the instinctive tendencies which furnish a constant motive and pressure for such activities. To understand the zest in the search for truth, we must take account of the primal instinct of curiosity. To appreciate the meaning of