Chapter XXXVII: General Conclusions

Review of our course of thought--Purpose of this chapter--The problem studied in this work--Interrelation of social and psychic phenomena--Heredity defined and analyzed--Evolution defined--Exact definition of our question, and our reply--What would be an adequate disproof of our position--Reasons for limiting the discussion to advanced races--Divergent evolution dependent on segregation--Distinction between racial and social unity--Relation of the individual psychic character to the social order--"Race soul" a convenient fiction--Psychic function produces psychic organism--Causes and nature of plasticity and fixity of society--Relation of incarnate ideas to character and destiny--Valuelessness of "floating" ideas--Progress is at once communal and individual--Personality is its cause, aim, and criterion--Progress in personality is ethico-religious--Japanese social and psychic evolution not exceptional, 438