If we turn our attention to the opposite phase of Japanese character, namely their selfishness, their self-assertiveness, and their aggressiveness, whether as a nation or as individuals, and consider at the same time the recent rise of this spirit, we are again impressed both with the narrow range of facts to which the advocates of “impersonality” call our attention, and also with the utter insufficiency of their theory to account for the facts they overlook.  According to the theory of altruism and “impersonality,” these are characteristics of undeveloped races and individuals, while the reverse characteristics, those of selfishness and self-assertiveness, are the products of a later and higher development, marks of strong personality.  But neither selfishness nor individual aggressiveness is a necessary element of developed “personality.”  If it were, children who have never been trained by cultivated mothers, but have been allowed to have their own way regardless of the rights or desires of others, are more highly developed in “personality” than the adult who has, through a long life of self-discipline and religious devotion, become regardless of his selfish interests and solicitous only for the welfare of others.  If the high development of altruism is equivalent to the development of “impersonality,” then those in the West who are renowned for humanity and benevolence are “impersonal,” while robbers and murderers and all who are regardless of the welfare of others are possessed of the most highly developed “personality.”  And it also follows that highly developed altruistic benefactors of mankind are such, after all, because they are undeveloped,—­their minds are relatively undifferentiated,—­hence their fellow-feeling and kindly acts.  There is a story of some learned wit who met a half-drunken boor; the latter plunged ahead, remarking, “I never get out of the way of a fool”; to which the quick reply came, “I always do.”  According to this argument based on self-assertive aggressiveness, the boor was the man possessed of a strong personality, while the gentleman was relatively “impersonal.”  If pure selfishness and aggressiveness are the measure of personality, then are not many of the carnivorous animals endowed with a very high degree of “personality”?

The truth is, a comprehensive and at the same time correct contrast between the East and the West cannot be stated in terms of personality and impersonality.  They fail not only to take in all the facts, but they fail to explain even the facts they take in.  Such a contrast of the East and the West can be stated only in the terms of communalism and individualism.  As we have already seen,[CU] every nation has to pass through the communal stage, in order to become a nation at all.  The families and tribes of which it is composed need to become consolidated in order to survive in the struggle for existence with surrounding families, tribes, and nations.  In this stage the individual