192 ADAPTATION AND PROGRESS 



of others. " The general conception of social progress," he says, 

 "is the mutually adaptive reactions of individuals; and that special 

 form of adaptation which we call imitation is neither its only- 

 social form nor its only social form of importance," and quotes 

 Cooley with approval, who says: "There are other aspects of 

 society besides imitation which may be viewed as social proc- 

 esses ; competition, communication, differentiation, and others, 

 are each worthy of a volume like Tarde's Laws of Imitation. . . . 

 The real process is a multiform thing, of which these are but 

 glimpses." 1 



In the writings of Tarde we have an attempt to explain cosmic 

 evolution in purely mechanical terms, hence passive adaptation 

 is ever in the foreground, but these mechanistic forces are ever 

 producing new compounds 2 hence the possibility of progress. In 

 the human intellect these result in new ideas, and in the " heart " 

 in new desires and sentiments, and these functioning in social life 

 as inventions, make possible that so-called telic process which we 

 term active adaptation. 



James Mark Baldwin (1861- ) 

 The Dialectic of Growth 



Professor Baldwin, as Tarde, has made imitation the funda- 

 mental social process or " true type of social function," although 

 he differs from the latter in his interpretation of the process, in his 

 analysis of the " imitable " and in his emphasis on " reflective 

 imitation." 3 



Baldwin makes his approach to social philosophy from the 

 point of view of genetic psychology, studies the process of the 

 development of the child's mind in contact with his social environ- 

 ment and from his conclusions formulates his principles of the 

 " Dialectic of Personal Growth " and " Dialectic of Social 

 Growth " which together form his chief contribution to our sub- 

 ject. In order to appreciate these principles some preliminary 

 observations will be in place. 



1 Davis, op. cit., p. 104. 2 L'invention, pp. 4 f. 



8 Social and Ethical Interpretations, pp. 478 £. 



