OF SOCIETY. 523 



societies. To the latter attention had been drawn in 

 France by the writings of A. Espinas. Schaffle also takes 

 a step in advance of Spencer, inasmuch as he does not 

 look upon the individual man as the social unit in every 

 respect. The social unit, to him, is the family, which is 

 entrusted with the function of the increase, preservation, 

 and procreation of the personal elements of society. We 

 are here reminded of the fact that Spencer already in his 

 biology saw himself obliged to adopt the conception of 

 " physiological units," the origin of which could, as little as 

 their structure, be clearly brought back to their physical 

 or molecular constitution. We have here again in both 

 cases a proof of the necessity of starting, both in biology 

 and sociology, with some given ensemble or " together " as 

 defining the units out of which and the basis on which 

 an insight into complicated organisms may be attained. 



In France a philosopher of a different stamp has 65. 



Fouillee. 



devoted much attention to the analogy between the 

 animal and the social organism ; but A. Fouille'e (1838- 

 1912) conceives the word "organism" in a larger 

 sense than Spencer. He looks upon society as an 

 organism of a higher order than the animal organ- 

 ism. In it the process of organisation in nature 

 has risen to a higher level. The social organism has 

 more life than the physical organism; for, what has 

 been considered to be the miracle of Life, the " coii- 

 spiration " towards a common end, is more evident in 

 the social organism, where the common end is not 

 only instinctively pursued by the different members 

 but has become a conscious aim. The social organism 

 has not only the mechanism corresponding to the 



