Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/174

 1 62 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

first is that of the Latin word societas, meaning "companion- ship," "good-fellowship," "pleasurable consorting together," or meaning the individuals collectively regarded that consort. Examples of society in this original sense are afforded by the commingling of familiar spirits at the tavern or the club, the casual association of chance acquaintances at the summer resort, the numberless more formal " functions " of " the season." In the second signification of the word, "society" is a group of individuals co-operating for the achievement of any object of common interest or utility, as, for example, a merchant guild, an industrial corporation, a church, a Congress of Arts and Sci- ence. Finally, in the third signification of the word, " society " is a group of individuals dwelling together and sharing many interests of life in common. A nest of ants, a savage horde, a confederation of barbarian tribes, a hamlet or village, a city- state, a national state, a federal empire all these are societies within the third and comprehensive definition of the term. A scientific conception of society must lie within the boundaries fixed by these three familiar meanings, but it must seize upon and make explicit the essential fact, whatever it may be, that is a common element in all social relations.

At the present time we find in sociological literature two competing conceptions of the essential nature of society. They are known respectively as the organic and the psychological conception.

The organic conception assumes that the group of individuals dwelling and working together is the true, or typical, society, and that it is as much a unity, although made up of indi- viduals, as is the animal or the vegetable body, composed of cells and differentiated into mutually dependent tissues and organs. Sketched in bold outlines by Herbert Spencer in his essay on The Social Organism in 1860, the organic conception has been elaborated by Schaffle and Lilienfeld, and is today accepted as the working hypothesis of an able group of French sociologists, whose work appears in the proceedings of L'Institut interna- tional de Sociologie.

The psychological conception assumes that, whether or not