18 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 210. 



reflection no less than of feeling are deter- 

 mined by the ' dialectic of personal growth,' 

 and that, like judgments of things in gen- 

 eral, they are, in the thought of indi- 

 viduals, highly composite products of sub- 

 jective and ejective views of the same 

 phenomena. 



Approaching the study of society in this 

 way, Professor Baldwin is naturally led to 

 discriminate between the substance, con- 

 tent, stuff, or material of society, and the 

 functional method or process of organiza- 

 tion of the social material. He criticises 

 the sociologists for not having definitely 

 enough discriminated these two problems. 

 Consistently with his conception of our 

 social judgments, he describes the matter 

 of social organization as follows: "The 

 matter of social organization consists of 

 thoughts ; by which is meant all sorts of 

 intellectual states, such as imagination, 

 knowledges and informations." This 'mat- 

 ter,' he thinks, is found only in human 

 groups, which only, therefore, can be called 

 societies. Animal communities he would 

 call ' companies.' The functional method 

 or process of organization of the social 

 material he is satisfied to find in the process 

 of imitation as subjectively contained in 

 the ' dialectic of personal growth,' and ob- 

 jectively described, in sociological terms, 

 by M. Tarde. Social evolution results from 

 the interaction of the individual as a par- 

 ticularizing force and society as a general- 

 izing force. All solidarity and conservation 

 are due to the generalizing force ; all varia- 

 tion to the particularizing force. Progress 

 is a dialectic of give and take between these 

 two elements. 



In examining these conceptions I shall 

 admit their general or substantial truth, 

 and inquire only whether they need modifi- 

 cation, limitation or expansion. Do they 

 suflBciently and precisely express the whole 

 truth and nothing but the truth? 



Is the thought of self quite so largely a 



product of the social relation as Professor 

 Baldwin represents ? Is it accurate to say 

 that •' my thought of self is, in the main, 

 filled up with my thought of others," even 

 if we admit ' minor distinctions in the fill- 

 ing' and "certain compelling distinctions 

 between that which is immediate and that 

 which is objective ? " What are these com- 

 pelling distinctions of the immediate ? Ob- 

 viously, they are those presentations in 

 consciousness which arise from organic con- 

 ditions rather than from social relations. 

 Hunger is a state of consciousness which 

 can subvert the entire product of the ' dia- 

 lectic of personal growth ;' and the sociolo- 

 gist is unable to lose sight of the fact that 

 when men who have been developed by that 

 dialectic into socii are confronted by star- 

 vation they are liable to have thoughts of 

 self which can hardly be construed as filled 

 up mainly with thoughts of others, unless 

 he is prepared to accept a cannibal's defini- 

 tion of others. The sociologist, then, must 

 continue to think of the individual as being 

 both an ego and a socius, and yet as be- 

 ing at all times more ego than socius. 



The importance of this modification of 

 Professor Baldwin's formula is chiefly for 

 purposes of economic theory. Xo econo- 

 mist will be able to accept Professor Bald- 

 win's contention (bottom of page 13) that 

 it is illegitimate to ' endeavor to reach a 

 theory of value based on a calculus of the 

 desire of one individual to gratify his indi- 

 vidual wants, multiplied into the number 

 of such individuals.' The truth is that, for 

 most purposes of economic theory, this pro- 

 cedure is not only legitimate, but is the 

 only one psychologically possible. The 

 compelling wants that political economy 

 has chiefly to consider are those which arise 

 from the organic nature and which, there- 

 fore, magnify the ego at the expense of the 

 socius. 



The modification is necessary also for 

 purposes of ethical theory. Professor Bald- 



