Charles A Ellwood's 1 - 2
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Prolegomena to Social Psychology II:
The Fundamental Fact in Social Psychology
Citation: Charles A. Ellwood. "Prolegomena to Social Psychology:
II: The Fundamental Fact in Social Psychology." American Journal
of Sociology, (1899): 807-822.
II. THE FUNDAMENTAL FACT IN SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY. [1]
In spite of the remarkable development which this century has witnessed in
the science of psychology from the time of Fechner to the present, most psychologists
will admit that the science has as yet, contributed little to the development
of the social sciences, to the solution of the problems of societary life.
A beginning, it is true, has been made in some of the social sciences in applying
psychological principles to the solution of their problems. This is the case,
for example, in political economy, especially in the attempt which the Austrian
school has made to build up a theory of value upon principles furnished by
the older individual psychology. But the contributions which psychology has
thus far made to social science have been, with a few exceptions, small and
insignificant compared with what has been expected from it.
The reasons for this failure of psychology to contribute materially to the
solution of social problems have been many. One has already been suggested
in the preceding article of this series, namely, the dominance of the individualistic
method and point of view in psychological investigation. Another is to be
found, perhaps, in the failure to develop a comparative or genetic psychology.
The reason, however, which appears to its fundamental and inclusive of the
others is that psychology has not been developed from the point of view of
function or life-process. A mere structural [2] psychology
of the adult human individual cannot, from its very nature, give an interpretation
of life in its broadest phases, much less of the activities of society.
(808) Though the psychical life of the social group may be roughly analogous
to the psychical life of the individual, yet the analogy, if such there be,
is wholly on the side of function, not on the side of structure. The whole development
of psychology, therefore, which has been represented by such men as Wundt and
Külpe, however valuable it may be in other respects, has had no special
significance for the development of the social sciences. A functional psychology
is what is wanted for the interpretation of society or any section of its activities.
The essential principles of such a psychology, we believe, leave already been
formulated. The credit of having formulated them belongs to Professor John Dewey,
[3]
a statement of whose point of view is a necessary preliminary to the argument
of this paper.
Professor Dewey's psychological point of view may be put somewhat schematically
as follows : The fundamental fact in the psychical life, according to him,
is not the sensation, but the coordination of the living organism in some
activity— the act. [4] We cannot get back of the coordination
in psychology. Wherever we begin, we must begin with a living organism doing
something. The unit of psychical activity, therefore, is the act or coordination.
In reality there is only one large coordination the act of living or the life-process.
But within this supreme coordination there arise minor coördinations
in the adapting of one part of the organism to another, or of one portion
of the life-process to another portion. Or, looking at the process from the
opposite standpoint, we may say particular acts are coordinated. unified,
into larger coördinations which control the smaller acts ; and all are
finally unified into, and controlled by, the general life-process of the organism.
Thus the psychical life is to be regarded and interpreted as a function of
the general life-
(809) process. Function, then, rather than organism or environment, is the thing
to be considered in psychology. From this point of view all forms of psychical
activity can be reduced to two types: coördination and adaptation. All
the phenomena of psychical life group themselves about these two fundamental
forms — are the outgrowth of them, and are functionally explained by their
reference to them. Thus a coördination which has once been successfully
established tends to persist, or becomes a habit. The necessity of adjustment,
however, arising from some variation in the organism or environment, causes
the old coordination or habit to break up, and sensation results. Sensation,
then, is the sign of the interruption of a habit, and represents the point at
which an activity is reconstructed. The old coordination in breaking up, however,
must yield the material for the new coördination; that is, it must be used
as means for the construction of a new coordination. The processes of discrimination,
attention, and association come in to build up the new coordination. They are
all processes which arise only through the transition from one coordination
to another. The discriminative process, for example, represents the breakdown
of the old coordination, and what we call association represents the building
up of the new coordination. Attention represents the conflict of two or more
activities involved in the building upof the new coordination; it is the attempt,
on he part of the organism, to discover, select, the adequate stimulus for the
construction of the new coordination. These illustrations will suffice for our
purposes. . In the same manner all psychical processes may be interpreted —
as referring either to the coordination or to the transition from one coordination
to another. The coordination is, therefore, the fundamental and central fact
of the psychical life. All other psychical facts are functional expressions
of the coordination, or of the relation of one coordination to another within
the life-process. Thus the psychical life presents itself as a system of means
and ends, whose unity finds expression in the general end of control over the
means of existence, that is, over the conditions of survival. Summarizing, then,
we may say that Professor Dewey's psychological point of view is that of a life-
(810) -process, or life-activity, functioning to secure control over its own
life-conditions, and thereby its own development. The resulting interpretation
of the facts of the psychical life yields a psychology whose chief categories
are coördination, adaptation, habit, instinct, selection, evaluation, and
the like ; in brief, an
evolutionary psychology.
[5]
The value of such a psychology to the social sciences must be evident, even
from such a schematic and fragmentary statement as we have given. Such a psychology
comes into contact with life at every point and interprets functionally the
processes of life ; it is no formal, over-abstracted science, but shows us
the actual workings of the psychic reality. The question at once suggests
itself: Are not these categories, which have been so successfully applied
to the interpretation of the psychical life of the individual, also applicable
to the interpretation of the life of society on its psychical side ? Cannot
the fundamental principles of such a functional psychology be transferred
at once from the interpretation of the life of the individual to that of society?
If it be granted that social groups function, act, as unities, and that therefore
they, as well as individual organisms, may be regarded as functional unities,
then there would seem to be no logical objection to such a procedure. On the
contrary, when both society and the individual are regarded as functional
unities, it would seem highly probable that the fundamental principles and
categories employed in the interpretation of the psychical life of the one
would apply equally in the interpretation of the psychical life of the other.
Thus the transference of principles of interpretation from the individual
to society may be easily justified as a working hypothesis. Professor Dewey's
point of view, if fully stated, would, indeed, be favorable to such an extension
of his psychological principles of interpretation to society. He recognizes
that the individual life-process is not an isolated fact, but only a differentiated
center within a larger life-process of the group. This position implies, not
only the possibility of
(811) a group psychology, but also the possibility of applying the same fundamental
principles of interpretation in it as in individual psychology. But the real
warrant for transferring the principles and categories of a functional psychology
of the individual to the interpretation of society must be found in the facts
of societary life itself. The question which must be asked, accordingly, is:
Are there real processes in the group which correspond to those denoted in the
individual by the categories coordination, adaptation, habit, etc. ? Is there
anything, for example, in group-life answering to the coordination in individual
life? If so, does it occupy the same central position in the life of the group
as in that of the individual ?
[6]
In group-life, as in the life of the individual organism, we cannot get back
of the group doing something. If we go back of that point, we get
merely all aggregation of individuals, of which we predicate no group-life.
We may explain biologically how the aggregation was primitively formed, but
we do not think of the aggregation as a unity until group-action appears.
The group-act is the sign of group-life throughout the scale of living organisms,
whether among human beings or among the lowest forms. Foms merely dwelling
in proximity can hardly be said to have a common group-life until they become
functionally related to each other as parts of a functioning whole. In a psychological
interpretation of group-life, then, we must begin with the group acting
together in some particular way ; for it is this
(812) which constitutes the group a functional unity. This acting together of
the individual organisms in a group evidently corresponds in form exactly to
the coördination in the individual. We may call it, therefore, the group
or social coördination.
[7] It is in group-life what the
coördination is in the individual organism— the unit of psychical activity,
the fundamental psychical fact about which all other facts of psychical activity
group themselves. As in the case of the individual, too, particular social coördinations
become unified into a general life-process of the group, which we term the social
process. The origin of group-acts or coördinations among primitive forms
may be explained on biological grounds; but the group-act or coördination
is none the less the first psychic manifestation of group-life. It is accordingly
the fact upon which social psychology must be built up, and from which it must
proceed in functionally interpreting the life of society. The fundamental fact
in social psychology is, therefore, the social coördination..
While the social coördination may be objectively defined as the acting
together of the individual organisms of a group in some particular way, subjectively
it doubtless always involves, where consciousness exists, a certain psychical
attitude of the individual members of the group toward each other. At least
in so far as concerns human society, the social coördination may be subjectively
defined as the mental attitude which the individuals of a group maintain toward
each other. Thus in a family group the mental attitude of its members toward
each other is an expression of their common group-life and group-activities,
and may be expected to change as those activities change. It is evident that
we have here to do with the beginnings of social organization. The acting
together of tile individual organisms
(813) of a group in some particular way necessitates relationships among the
members of the group, varying according to the part which each member plays
in the functioning of the whole These varying relationships subjectively involve
varying mental attitudes of the members of the group toward each other. Now,
the mental attitude of one member of a group toward another is necessarily that
of authority, subordination, equality. or some variation of these three primary
"forms of association."
[8] Hence the social coördination
is the beginning of social organization both on its conscious and unconscious
sides. The psychical attitude of the members of a group toward each other is
the initial stage of social organization on its conscious side; while from the
necessity of functional relationship in a common life-process springs social
organization in both its aspects. The organization of any group is accordingly
an outcome of its group coordinations, of its life-process as a group. All social
organization, then, is but an expression of social coordination ; and it is
from this point of view that. social organization must be studied if it is to
be functionally understood.
It may be objected that "social coördination" is but a new name for
the phenomenon of coöperation. The very definitions which have been given
of social coördination, it may be urged, validate the objection. The
reply is that if by "coöperation " is meant all that we mean by "social
coordination," then there is no objection to the use of the term "cooperation."
But both popularly and by scientific writers the term "cooperation" has been
used in a much more restricted sense. It implies just that element of consciousness
on the part of the individuals engaged in group-action which the term "social
coördination" is especially designed to exclude. Thus Professor Giddings
speaks of cooperation as requiring "unity of purpose and of method on the
part of two or more individuals," and says: "'there can be no cooperation
except among those who are, in good degree., like-minded, and who are so far
conscious of their agreement
(814) that they can intelligently plan their common activity."
[9]
In another place he says : "There must be . . . . a perception by each of the
coöperating individuals that . . . . all have the same interest, and that
all are endeavoring to accomplish the same end."
[10] These
statements of Professor Giddings involve, we believe, a correct definition of
the term "coöperation" in its usual acceptation. But the large amount of
consciousness which they imply on the part of coöperating individuals is
just what is often noticeably absent in that acting together of the members
of a group which we have called the social coordination. So far from being conscious
of any purpose or end, the individual is usually in group-activities unconscious
of the connection of his act either with his own life-process or with that of
the group. He is conscious, if at all, generally only of the gratification or
working out of an instinctive impulse. Especially among lower forms the end
which controls the activity cannot be supposed to exist for the consciousness
of the form. Consciousness of the task to be performed, of the end to be reached,
in the acting together of members of a group would seem to be the exception
rather than the rule, if we take into view the group-life of the whole organic
world; while consciousness of the "acting together" as a definite means to an
end is a still rarer phenomenon. The psychical attitude which social coördination
involves (where consciousness exists) on the part of the coördinated individuals
is not a consciousness of "acting together," or even of a definite task to be
performed, but rather a feeling or sense of relationship to one another. The
social coördination, in other words, comes into consciousness only at a
relatively late period in mental development, and then only when some new condition
necessitates the reconstruction of the coördination. It is evident, then,
that if the term "coöperation" is used to cover all cases of social coördination,
it must be used wholly in an objective sense and must be stripped of its usual
implication of consciousness. If used in this sense, there is no objection to
saying, as Spencer does, " Social life in its entirety
(815) is carried on by cooperation;" and the proposition would be equally true
if the limiting adjective were dropped. On account of the narrowed meaning of
the word in popular usage, however, it would be better, in our estimation, to
borrow a term like "coordination" from a science which in its essentials
is
one with social psychology, and to retain the word "cooperation" for those
cases to which it manifestly applies : namely, the cases of social coordination
which have come more or less fully into consciousness.
A social coordination which has once been successfully established, as in
the case of the coordination in the individual organism, tends to persist,
or becomes a social habit. Social habits are the basis of all activities of
group-life. Every new social coördination, every new adaptation in the
group-life, is made upon the basis of already existing social habits. Without
the fixity or definiteness which social habit gives to the forms of group-activities
there could be no group-life, as unity and stability to the group would be
lacking. On the other hand, too great fixity of social habit gives rise to
many of the abnormal phenomena of societary life. As in the case
of the individual, if the social habit does not retain a certain amount of
flexibility, enabling the group to adapt its activities to a constantly changing
environment, then it becomes of disadvantage to the group in its life-struggle
causing pathologic conditions, and even the disintegration and destruction
of the group. Social habits pass insensibly into customs and institutions.
The term "custom" is, indeed, almost synonymous with the term "social habit."
But customs are usually thought of as peculiar to the group, that is, as the
habits which distinguish one group from another. Thus an almost universally
prevalent social habit, like the storing up of food products for future consumption,
is rarely spoken of as a custom.. Institutions are social habits which have
received a peculiar social sanction and which have been organized more or
less fully into the structure of the group. Forms of marriage, property, government,
religion, and the like become such. From the point of view of social psychology,
at least, an institution is not an individual invention. It is rather an organized
mode of
(816) societary activity, a social habit, which has been of such life-saving
advantage to the group that the authority and sanction of the group as a whole
have been conferred upon it. Laws are formal expressions of social habits which
have come into consciousness. They are established by the group for the sake
of greater control over the habit. Nearly the same thing may be said of ethical
rules which have been approved by the group. Habit, then, is a category which
applies to societary as well as to individual life. It is a fundamental category
in interpreting the psychical life of society, if that interpretation proceeds
from a functional point of view.
With the idea of transition as applied to social life we are already familiar.
In the terminology of social psychology a social transition is obviously a
transition from one social habit to another, from one social coördination
to another. In the face of new life-conditions social habits, like individual
habits, must be readjusted. In other words, the old social coördination
breaks down and the phenomenon of adaptation, of building up a new social
coördination, arises. It is here that some of the most important of societary
phenomena come in. Where processes of discrimination, association, and attention
in the individual aid in building up a new coördination, processes of
discussion, social suggestion, and social selection in the group come in to
construct the new social coördination. The process of discussion, which
may be called the societary process of discrimination, represents especially
the breakdown of the old social coördination, while the processes of
social suggestion and social selection particularly represent the building
up of the new coördination. In human society, at least, all these processes
may arise in the transition from one coördination to another, that is,
in the adaptation of the group life-process to some new condition in either
the external or the internal environment. Adaptation,[11]
then, is a fact of group-life as well as of individual life, and next to coördination
the most fundamental and important fact.
Thus in theory the categories and principles of a functional psychology of
the individual seem to apply in a subjective inter-
(817) -pretation of the social life. Let us now see how they fit into the concrete
facts of the social process, and whether or a not they will serve at all to
interpret that process in its various phases. The case of political revolutions
furnishes us a good illustration with which to begin, both because revolutions
are such striking facts in the social process, and because from a sociological
point of view no satisfactory theory of revolutions has yet been proposed.
The transition from one habit to another is not always an easy thing either
for individuals or social groups. Where the habit has become inflexible, where
peculiar conditions in the inner or outer environment prevent the normal break-up
of the habit, in short, where power of adaptation has for any reason been
lost, violent disturbances of the psychical life are apt to take place in
the change from one habit to another. Especially is this the case when the
habit to be changed is a general one which affects the whole life-process.
From a psychological point of view revolutions are such disturbances in the
psychical life of society, produced by the breaking down of a social habit
under abnormal conditions. Where social habits have for any reason become
inflexible—as is so often the case with institutions, bolstered up and exploited
as they frequently are by class interest even though they are opposed to the
interest of the society as a whole— in the face of new life-conditions there
is apt to be a revolution. Instead of the gradual and peaceful transformation
of one social habit into another which ordinarily goes on in society, in a
revolution we witness the sudden and violent breakdown of social habits which
have long outlived their usefulness to the social process. The breakdown is
sudden because the old habit has been sustained until accumulating opposing
tendencies have overwhelmed it; it is violent just in proportion as hindrances
stand in its way. Instead of the ordinary period of uncertainty and confusion
which normally follows the breakdown of a habit both in the individual and
in society, in revolution we have a period of great confusion, at times amounting
even to absolute disorganization or anarchy. The confusion and disorganization
are, of course, proportionate to the importance
(818) of the habit in the societary life-process and to the completeness and
suddenness of the breakdown. The recuperative vigor of a society may be such
that a new social coördination, adapted to the new life-conditions, will
speedily be constructed, which will put an end to the reign of confusion and
anarchy. Or, where a society has largely lost its power of adaptation, the effort
to build up a new coördination, adapted to the new life-conditions, may
repeatedly fail, as it did in the case of the French Revolution. Under such
circumstances we have a series of unsuccessful experiments, extending over a
longer or shorter period of time, in building up new social coördinations
; hence there may be a series of revolutions, each of which may add to the confusion
and anarchy already existing. For such a society often the only hope of avoiding
disintegration is to find or "select " an individual who, when clothed with
sovereign authority, shall be capable of reorganizing and readjusting the societary
life in accordance with the new conditions ; hence the tendency to dictatorship
which revolution often breeds. The phenomena of revolutions are thus susceptible
of interpretation through the application of the categories and principles of
a functional psychology. Such a subjective interpretation needs, of course,
to be supplemented by an objective interpretation ; but the important thing
we wish here to be noted is that a social psychology built up upon the facts
of coördination and adaptation in social life has a theory of revolutions
to offer. That theory is, in summary, that revolutions are caused by the breakdown
of social habits under abnormal conditions, such as we have noted above; that,
in other words, the phenomena of revolutions are all susceptible of interpretation
as phenomena which in principle may arise in any psychical organism in the transition
from one habit to another under like abnormal conditions.
It is recognized that the theory of revolutions here proposed is not wholly
new, but is implicit in the writings of many historians and social thinkers.
Nevertheless, this is the first explicit statement of the theory that we know
of. It is introduced here, in a discussion of the principles upon which a
social psychology must be built up, as a theory growing out of our point of
view
(819) and illustrating the application of that point of view to the concrete
problems of social life.
In a similar manner the principles of interpretation furnished by a functional
psychology may be applied to other social problems. Though we can but roughly
apply our principles in most instances, there is, so far as we have been able
to discover, no case of change within a society to which such principles of
interpretation will not apply, and upon which they will not throw some light,
whether the transition be one occupying a few years or a century. Let us now,
for the sake of further illustration, take another concrete case in which
the transition has been gradual and unattended by violent disturbance in the
social process. The semi-patriarchal type of family which prevailed in Christendom
up to the present century has been gradually breaking down. It has been unfitted
to meet the new conditions of modern life. The old social habit has been going
to pieces, and the usual confusion, uncertainty, and disorganization, attendant
upon the breakdown of an important habit, have been manifested. Divorces have
increased, and irregular forms of union have been, perhaps, more common. But
in the meanwhile a new type of family, a new social habit, has been forming.
By discussion, continuous social suggestion, social selection of ideas and
ideals — processes familiar in every period of transition in human society
— a new social coördination is being built tip. We have every reason
to believe, therefore, that when the process of social selection has been
completed, any ideas adequate to the construction of a new social coordination,
adapted to the present life-conditions, have been found, there will be a return
to comparative fixity in the form of family life. A new type of family, in
other words, will have emerged, a new social habit will have been formed.
Present disturbances in family life, then, are to be regarded largely as phenomena
attendant upon a transitionary stage, when an old social habit has broken
down and a new habit has not yet been formed. Thus the principles of a functional
social psychology may throw light upon present social phenomena and problems
as well as upon those of the past. Hundreds of illustrations of the application
of the principles
(820) and categories of functional psychology to societary changes might be
drawn from industrial, political, and social history, but space permits only
the giving of the above two.
The fact must here be noted that the breakdown of a social habit is not always
followed by the building up of a new one in its place. The breakdown may be
a sign, not of adaptation, but of social degeneration or dissolution ; or
a social habit may be simply "weeded out," as it were, because it has become
of disadvantage to the society in the life-struggle. With societies not degenerate,
however, the breakdown of a social habit of any importance or value in the
life-process is always followed by the building up of a new social habit.
With societies which, though not degenerate, yet contain a large number of
degenerate individuals, the building-up process may occupy a period of centuries,
and may involve (as it always does implicitly involve) a selection of individuals,
as well as of psychical stimuli, ideas, etc.; but the new social habit comes
in time, if the society survives. Before the church, for example, succeeded
in building up a new type of family life, at the beginning of our era, upon
the ruins of the patriarchal Roman type, a process of selection involving
both individuals and ideas had to go on for centuries ; but the Christian
type of family of the Middle Ages was finally evolved. In any such case, where
certain individuals in a society are hindrances to the building up of a new
social habit necessary to the survival or development of the society, the
tendency manifestly is to select those individuals whose beliefs, ideals,
and general psychical attitude are favorable to the construction of the new
social coördination, arid to suppress the others.
A word may here, perhaps, appropriately be said in reference to social selection.
Professor James and Professor Baldwin are right in emphasizing the importance
of social selection in the societary process. But neither has given any adequate
reason why one individual or one idea is "selected," rather than another individual
or another idea. Both have failed to show the basis upon which society makes
its selection from the variations produced by individuals, utilizing some,
rejecting others. Both are practically content to state the fact that society
selects, without
(821) inquiring into the causes of the selection. From our point of view it
is obvious that social selection is exactly analogous to the selection which
goes on in the individual through the process of attention in the building up
of a new coördination. Society selects ideas and individuals, in other
words, upon the basis of their utility in building up or maintaining its coordinations.
It is especially in the building up of new social habits that the process of
social selection is manifest. A Napoleon could never have been so acceptable
to the French people if the nation as a whole had not been striving to build
up new and stable institutions after the repeated failures of its revolutionary
governments. If a Napoleon had not been found by the French people, some other,
inferior individual would have been selected to perform his task. Concerning
Cromwell, or any other great historical personage, essentially the same may
be said as concerning Napoleon, namely, that he was "called forth," selected,
"by the social needs of the hour," the need being the reconstruction of some
societary activity. The social selection of ideas is made upon the same basis
as that of individuals. Those ideas, beliefs, ideals, philosophies, psychical
attitudes, etc., are selected by a society which aid it in building up new coördinations
or maintaining old ones. Ideas survive, not because of any inherent fitness
to survive, nor yet because of their "fitness for imitative reproduction,"
[12]
as some would maintain, but because of their utility
[13] in
the social life-process. If it be asked why certain ideas arise and permeate
entire societies at certain periods, the answer, from the point of view maintained
throughout this paper, must be, because such ideas are selected by the social
life-process to aid in building up new coordinations. The genesis of the states
of the social mind, in other words, is not different from the genesis of the
states of the individual mind. Ideas make and unmake the world, not because
they are forces outside of the life-process, but because of their connection
with that process;
(222) because they are, as it were, tools forged by it for its own development
and perfecting.
We are tempted to follow farther the application of the principles and categories
of functional psychology in the interpretation of the phenomena of the social
life, but the scope of this paper does not permit. Criticism of theories which
do not seem to accord with the point of view of this article must also be
left till a later date. In the meanwhile, if this article succeeds in arousing
a candid and careful consideration of its chief proposition, namely, that
a social psychology can be constructed upon the fundamental principles and
categories of a functional psychology of the individual, its main purpose
will be accomplished. What we have said has been in the way of illustrating
this proposition. It has been an attempt to demonstrate the possibility of
constructing, rather than to construct, such a social psychology.
CHARLES A. ELLWOOD.
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO.
Endnotes
- This paper appears slightly out of its logical order in the series. Many
of its presuppositions will be found in the paper following.
- Cf. TITCHENER on "The Postulates of a Structural Psychology, in the Philosophical
Review, September, 1898.
- The leading ideas of this paper were first suggested to the writer in
listening to a course of lectures by Professor Dewey on "Advanced Psychology
" in the winter quarter of 1896-7.
- See, concerning the problem here involved, Professor Dewey's article on
"The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology," in the Psychological Review
for July, 1896. The coordination (or act) may perhaps be defined as " the
bringing to a unity of (objective) aim of minor, unorganized activities."
The term "coordination " is preferred to the term "act" merely because it
can be given a more definite scientific content.
- Of course, other psychologists have made use of the evolutionary point
of view in their interpretation of the psychical life ; but their systems
have been incapable of assimilating thoroughly evolutionary concepts and
principles, and it is only fair to say that their psychologies have not
been distinctively evolutionary in their character.
- The equivocal meaning of many sociological terms is a great hindrance
to clearness in sociological discussion. Many terms, for example, have both
subjective and objective meanings. An attempt has been made in this series
of papers, however, to use terms with approximate consistency. Thus, the
word "social," ordinarily used in any one of half a dozen different subjective
senses, has been used mainly in an objective sense, implying simply "necessary
interdependence of forms among themselves in the life-process."
It is true that this definition, suggested by Professor George H. Mead,
widens the meaning of the term very greatly; but the widening is necessary
to proper understanding of the phenomena to which the term is applied. The
word "society" has been used in a sense corresponding with that of "social,"
though often with human cultural or national groups in mind, while the word
"group" has been used in a somewhat looser sense, though always implying
some measure of "interdependence of forms among themselves." Where it has
seemed desirable to use a colorless term, meaning simply "of society," in
order especially to exclude the narrower meanings of the word "social,"
the word "societary" has often been employed.
- Of course, from one point of view, the group-act, or "social coördination,"
is but a continuation, an extension, a result, of the acts of the individual
members of the group. This point of view is in no way inconsistent with
that generally maintained in this paper. We can either look at the group
as a whole, or regard it as composed of individual elements. Both points
of view are necessary for the full understanding of group-life. The former
has been generally maintained by the writer, for the sake of simplicity,
though the latter has also occasionally been taken. There is no dualism
implied here between the individual and the group ; nor elsewhere in the
paper, if the argument is properly apprehended.
- The valuable work of Dr. Simmel, of the university of Berlin, in making
out and classifying these "forms of association," or, as we would prefer
to call them, "types of social coordination," deserves here to be referred
to. It is the most serious and important study of social organization yet
attempted.
- Elements of Sociology, p. 77.
- Ibid., p. 78.
- Or accommodation, as Professor Baldwin would prefer to say.
- Baldwin, Social and Ethical Interpretations, p. l83.
- "Utility " must here be taken, of course, in its broadest sense, not as
used by the pleasure-pain philosophers, but as simply implying that which
favors the constructive process of life.
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