142 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 



from without and this something without, which is in fact the 

 collective consciousness, is conceived as a superior power, real 

 or ideal. This conception, though natural and necessary, is 

 nevertheless illusory according to our author. 1 



This mechanical social solidarity, expressing itself in repressive 

 right and punishment, is negative, but there is a positive social 

 solidarity which expresses itself in co-operation, in division of 

 labor, and co-operative law having as its psychological correlate 

 the consciousness of supplementary difference. 



This elaboration of the concept of organic solidarity based on 

 division of labor and consciousness of supplementary difference 

 though having antecedents in Comte and Bain, is the one great 

 contribution of Durkheim and supplements in a much-needed 

 way the concept of consciousness of kind, the corner-stone of 

 Giddings' system. 



The function of the division of labor is not to produce civiliza- 

 tion, he holds, but to give birth to groups which, without it, 

 would not exist. 



It is possible that the economic utility of division of labor counts for some- 

 thing in this result but in any case its social value far exceeds the sphere of 

 economic interests, for it results in the establishment of a social and moral 

 order sui generis. Individuals are bound together who without it would be 

 independent. In place of developing separately they unite in their efforts. 

 They are solidare and with a solidarity which does not reveal itself merely in 

 the brief moments of exchange of services but extends much further, as for 

 example in conjugal solidarity among modern nations. 2 



This division of labor gives rise to " consciousness of supple- 

 mentary difference " which has increasing importance with 

 advancing civilization. Durkheim finds biological and anthro- 

 pological basis for this as well as economic and psychological. 

 Practically the only functional difference between the sexes at 

 first, he holds, was that due to sex, and hi this, too, we have the 

 physiological basis of consciousness of supplementary difference; 

 but with division of labor and functional differentiations came 

 increasing structural changes, and part passu increasing psy- 

 chological, economic and social differentiations making ever 

 greater opportunity for the play of the attractive force based on 



1 De la Division du Travail Social, pp. 107, 108. 2 Ibid., p. 63. 



