[158] L. Stieda--The Brain of the Philologist. Journal of Morphology and Anthropology, 1907.
[160] K. Pearson--Variation in Man and Woman in Chances of Death. London, 1897.
4.--Darwinism and the Condition of Society.
It has accordingly not been proven, that women are inferior to men as a result of the quantity of their brain; yet the present intellectual status of women is not surprising. Darwin is surely right in saying, that if a list of the ablest men on the subjects of poetry, painting, sculpture, music, science and philosophy were placed beside a list of the ablest women on the same subjects, the two could not compare with one another. But could it be otherwise? ~It would be surprising if it were not so.~ Very correctly Dr. Dodel (Zurich)[161] says, that it would be different if for a number of generations men and women would be similarly educated. As a rule, woman is physically weaker than man also, which is by no means the case among many uncivilized peoples.[162] How much can be attained by practice and training from childhood on, may, for instance, be seen with ladies of the circus and female acrobats, who achieve most astounding things in regard to courage, daring, skill and strength.
As all these things are conditioned by the mode of life and education, as they are--to use a scientific term--due to “breeding,” it may be assumed as certain that the physical and intellectual life of man will lead to the best results, as soon as man will ~consciously and expediently influence his development~.
As plants and animals depend upon conditions of existence, as they are fostered by favorable and hampered by unfavorable ones, and as compulsory conditions force them to change their nature and character--provided that their influence does not destroy them--thus it is also with man. The manner in which a human being obtains his means of subsistence not only affects his external appearance, but also his feelings, his thoughts and his actions. If unfavorable conditions of existence--that is, unfavorable social conditions--are the cause of insufficient individual development, then it follows that by a change of his conditions of existence--that is, his social condition--man himself will be changed. The point in question, then, is, so to organize social conditions that every human being will be given an opportunity for the untrammelled development of his nature; that the laws of development and adaptation--called Darwinism after Darwin--may be consciously and expediently applied to all human beings. But that will only be possible under Socialism. As a rational being, capable of judgment, man must so alter his social conditions and everything in connection with them, that equally favorable conditions of existence prevail for all. Every individual shall be enabled to develop his talents and abilities to his own advantage as well as to the advantage of society, but he must not have the power to harm other individuals or society at large. His own advantage and the advantage of all shall coincide. Harmony of interests must supercede the conflict of interests that dominate present-day society.