FORMULAE OF SOCIAL PROGRESS IgI 
cal correlates as is done in physiological-psychology. But this 
process, as Miinsterberg has shown, leaves out the very heart of 
the phenomena compared. Evaluations differ from moment to 
moment, and social facts are the outcome of these ever-shifting 
evaluations. 
3. His broad use of the term imitation is questionable,! its 
exact meaning left undefined and its modus operandi mis-explained 
by use of mechanical similes. Indeed his discussion of suggestion 
and imitation is now passée? 
4. He made the mistake common to many social philosophers 
of trying to find one all-comprehensive element or principle as 
a sociological solvent. 
M. M. Davis credits Tarde’s social logic as giving the following 
valuable suggestions: ‘‘ It helps us to conceive how beliefs and 
desires (inventions) agree, disagree, or combine, and thus, how 
systems of ideas are built up. We see that the social life of a 
people must be an organic whole because of the inherent necessity 
for logical harmony between those different ideas and sentiments 
existing in individual minds, which are represented objectively 
in socialinstitutions. We see that social change must come about 
through the appearance and adoption (imitation) of new ideas, 
(inventions) which are either in harmony with the existing sys- 
tem, or are connected with such strong beliefs and desires that 
they substitute themselves for parts of this system and occasion a 
re-synthesis. The relative strength of such beliefs and desires 
determines whether or not an invention will be established 
socially, that is, be imitated.””"* Davis criticizes Tarde, however, 
for his over-emphasis on this one factor to the practical exclusion 
1 Cf. Small, op. cit., pp. 626 f.; Baldwin, Social and Ethical Interpretations, 
p. 478; Wallis, The Great Society, p. 120. 
2 Cooley, Human Nature and the Social Order, pp. 25 f.; Wallis, op. cit., pp. 131 f.; 
Thorndike, Original Nature of Man, ch. VIII. 
3 This criticism may be passed on the endeavor of the present writer to interpret 
social progress by the principle of adaptation, but this difference should be noted: 
The term imitation is supposed to have definite content and is used by Tarde to 
explain a process which includes innovation, repetition, opposition, and adaptation, 
whereas the term adaptation is used in this volume merely to describe a series of 
relationships existing or that should exist. 
4 Davis, Psychological Interpretations of Society, p. 22. 
