Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/812

 796 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

Draper holds (Hist, du developp. intell. de V Europe, I., p. 24) that " a people which pos- sesses the entire and continuous history of its civilization [and according to Vico such was Roman history] furnishes a safe guide in the search for the genesis of the civiliza- tion of other peoples which have insuBScient documents." Vico recognized the close connection of the elements of society and of the various periods of history; and humanity appeared to him less as an aggregate than as an organism. His conception of the social organism is not wholly clear; but he evidently held that the individuals composing society are bound together in vital relationships, as has been held by Spencer, Schaffle, and Hackel. He recognized the fact of the organic development of society almost as clearly as Schaffle did; and he held, though vaguely, with the modern sociologists, that man has developed through the struggle for existence and natural selection. Hunger and sexual passion played the most important part in this struggle. The first society was formed by marriage, and assured not only the propagation of the race, but the establishment of a community of ideas and customs; whence larger groups and nations were formed by the union of families. In the progress of civiliza- tion the struggle for existence becomes latent, and consolidating human minds and institutions become the chief facts of civilization. Finally, Vico considered the course of history to be the working of a divine plan. God governs the world, and the divine ideas are manifested through human action. Yet, as Flint has shown (" G. B. Vico ")' he did not fail to observe that knowledge of the first cause was obtained only through knowledge of the secondary causes, and that his new science was principally an expla- nation of history by means of facts strictly human. Here he was in agreement with Kant, who said, " Individuals and nations, while they follow their own and frequently conflicting purposes, are yet unconsciously obedient to a grand design of nature." — F. CosENTiNE, " La teoria dell' evoluzione sociale nel Vico e nei modemi sociologi, in Rivista Italiana Di Filosofia, ]a. and F., 1896.

The Moral Aspects of Socialism. — In spite of its great value, "Some Aspects of the Social Problem," misrepresents both the aims and methods of modern social- ism. It suggests that modern socialism rejects, or even denies, the principle that social reform must be regarded from the standpoint of character. Socialism does lay the emphasis on machinery, but it is only as a means to an end. Its dominant idea is that of conscious "selection" in social life, and it endeavors to readjust the machinery of industry in such a way that it can at once depend upon and issue in a higher kind of character and social type than is encouraged by the conditions of ordinary com- petitive enterprise. The older socialism rested upon ideas of retrogressive rather than of progressive selection. Modern socialism recognizes the laws of social develop- ment in setting itself against the manufacture of mechanical Utopias. Its whole point is the recognition by society of its interest in a certain type of character and quality of existence. Its distinction lies in its clear consciousness of the end to be attained and its conception of the means of attaining it. The means are the collective control or collective administration of certain branches of industry. A competition of quality would be substituted for a competition regulated by the supply and demand of the mar- ket, and the economic problem approached from the side of consumption. As the state raises the plane of competition within its own social group, it raises it in relation to other groups of the wider social organism. Socialism implies both a superior moral idea and a superior method of business, and neither can work without the other. Moral ideas must at least have a basis in the concrete relations of life. Individualistic organization of industry does not extend to the sense of duty which a man owes to society^ at large. -Socialism encourages the acquisition of property in proportion to character and capacity, and in so far as it serves the needs of individuality. — SIDNEY Ball, in International Journal of Ethics, April 1896.

Pestalozzi, as a Philanthropist and Reformer. — The schools celebrate Pestalozzi as a teacher; but he did not start out to found a system of pedagogy. He saw ragged children wandering about at Neuhof, and recognized the social duty of caring for those whom their parents had neglected or abandoned. He became the creator of the education of such children, the precursor of Demetz and Nichem.