804 SOCIOLOGY 



are developed under the reacting influence of the led. 1 Novicow 

 elaborates the idea of conflict which he conceives as gradually 

 passing from the crude form of violence and robbery, through 

 exploitation, monopoly, and privilege, to the higher form of mental 

 conflict discussion. 2 Sighele in his study of sects and parties 

 also makes much of the r61e of antagonism and struggle. 3 Marx 

 utilizes the same general idea in his famous doctrine of class-con- 

 flict. 4 Loria, too, discovers everywhere the dominance of class 

 interests with no concern for the common welfare. 5 Vaccaro, on the 

 other hand, while recognizing the prevalence of upper-class control, 

 describes the gradual mitigation of this struggle through concession 

 until a larger social unity is achieved. 6 Here he approaches Spencer, 

 who naturally makes much of group-conflict in the early stages of 

 social evolution, but almost wholly overlooks, in modern life, the 

 persistence under many disguises of these "struggle-groups." 7 

 The fundamental difference between the unity school and the con- 

 flict school is as to the degree to which unity has been attained. 

 Of those who see chiefly group-struggle in society, only one, Gum- 

 plowicz, refuses to admit any progress toward an ultimate harmony. 

 The rest, while emphasizing the struggle phase, leave room for a 

 more or less remote possibility that this conflict may be in some 

 measure mitigated, if not abandoned. As a means of interpreting 

 contemporary or historical social facts the conflict theory with 

 the group-psychology which this involves has obviously a practical 

 value. The organic unity of a modern city or nation is an elusive 

 idea in contrast with the contests of classes, sects, races, and parties, 

 which lie upon the surface. Yet it would be a serious error wholly 

 to lose sight of the larger unity which actually underlies these 

 apparently endless group-struggles. 



Comte based his idea of social unity not only on the organic or 

 naturalistic analogy, 8 but on consensus or psychical community. 

 Of late it is the latter concept which has been elaborated. The 

 idea of a social or group-spirit is not new: it is a philosophical 

 notion of long standing. The Zeitgeist, the popular will, public 

 opinion, were familiar phrases long before the days of social psych- 

 ology. Spencer, Schaffle, and Lilienfeld recognized the psychical 



1 Ratzenhofer, Die sodologische Erkenntniss (Leipzig, 1898), pp. 252 ff.; Wesen 

 und Zweck der Politik (Leipzig, 1893), pp. 657 ff. 



2 Novicow, Les luttes entre socieUs humaines et leurs phases successives (Paris, 

 1893). 



3 Sighele, La psychologic des sectes (Paris, 1898). 



4 Marx, Zur Kritik der politischen Oekonomie, Introduction, p. v. 



8 Loria, Les bases economiques de la constitution sociale, 2d ed. (Paris, 1893), 

 pp. 17 ff. 



8 Vaccaro, Les bases sociologiques du droit et de I'etat (Paris, 1898), pp. 79 ff. 



7 Cf. Simmel, The Persistence of Social Groups, American Journal of Sociology, 

 March, May, and July, 1898. 



8 Comte, Cours de philosophie, vol. iv, p. 460. 



