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.” ! 
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? 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 BaLpwin (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. 
’ Davis, op. cit., p. 104. 2 Linvention, pp. 4 f. 
3 Social and Ethical Interpretations, pp. 478 f. 
