GENESIS OF MAN, INTELLECTUALLY 



lized thinking, we shall see most beautifully ex- 

 emplified the way in which intellectual progress, 

 as it goes on in the human race, is determined 

 by social evolution. Intellectual progress is in- 

 deed a cause as well as a consequence of the 

 evolution of society ; but amid the dense entan- 

 glement of causes and effects our present pur- 

 pose requires us to single out especially the de- 

 pendence of progress in representativeness upon 

 social complexity, since herein will be found the 

 secret of the mental preeminence of civilized 

 man. Now the integration of small tribes into 

 larger and more complex social aggregates, which 

 is the fundamental phenomenon in civilization, 

 tends directly to heighten representativeness of 

 thinking by widening and varying the experi- 

 ences of the members of society. The member 

 of a savage tribe must think indefinitely, con- 

 cretely, rigidly, improvidently, because his intel- 

 lectual experiences are so few in number and 

 so monotonous in character. Increase in social 

 complexity renders possible, or indeed directly 

 produces, fresh associations of ideas in greater 

 and greater variety and abundance, so that the 

 decomposition and recombination of thoughts 

 involved in abstraction and generalization is 

 facilitated ; and along with this, the definiteness 

 and the plasticity of thought is increased, and the 

 contents of the mind become representative in 

 higher and higher degrees. Thus in every way 

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