FORMULAE OF SOCIAL PROGRESS 20/ 



Giddings has contributed to the development of the doctrine of 

 passive adaptation by his analysis of the psychological basis of 

 association, imitation and antagonism in so far as they are merely 

 automatic, organic reactions along the line of least resistance and 

 utility not only for the individual but for the group. He has 

 contributed to the development of the doctrine of active adapta- 

 tion by his insistence on the scientific distinction between man 

 and society, both endowed with self-determined will, and the 

 lower orders determined by forces from without; also by his anal- 

 ysis of the social process culminating in reflective sympathy, 

 rational like-mindedness, and social will.^ He gives to ideals and 

 religion a far higher place than most whom we have considered 

 and leaves the reader buoyed up by his manifest faith in the pos- 

 sibility of social reconstruction.^ 



Giddings is open to criticism in that he makes the individual the 

 sociological unit, that his test of progress is individualistic and 

 too indefinite, and that he has over-emphasized the one factor of 

 consciousness of kind to the neglect or slighting of other factors 

 equally important. 



1 Inductive Sociology, pt. 2, ch. IV, " Concerted Volition," also pp. 265 f. 

 * Principles, Book 4, chs. Ill and IV. 



