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Excerpt from The Social Philosophy of Instinct Social Philosophy of to-day. Indeed, one who reads current discussions of social problems cannot fail to be impressed with the significance that is attached to supposedly innate determinants of human behavior. It is hoped that by various manipulations of these forces, or instincts - that is, by sublimation, repression, suppression, thwarting, expression, and so forth - the good and evil of our society will be explained. It is also hoped that through a knowledge of these innate characters we shall be able to give a psychological interpretation of our moral ideas and sentiments, of our institutions and customs, and of culture in gen eral. In spite of the prevalence of these tendencies and hopes, the assumptions on which they are based seem in many cases to have been accepted uncritically. It is too readily assumed that our values, desires, im pulses, and emotions are determined by forces which we inherit as a result of the behavior or environmental conditions of our ancestors. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.