Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/223

 THE NATURE OF THE SOCIAL UNITY 211

fundamental to the whole question. Unity is not a matter of existence, but of method; it is merely a limiting conception. If it should be maintained that unity is something inherent in the thing itself, independent of experience, then it would be necessary to say that the concept has no value; for we are not concerned with anything outside of the world of expe- rience. A unity is just experience organized under a unifying con- cept, its nature depending on the purpose of the unifying consciousness. There are various grades or stages of unity. Anything may be thought of as a unity or a whole, if it suits any immediate purpose. On the other hand, anything but the universe may be thought of as a part of a larger whole, when it suits some purpose. Thus, a brick has unity from a certain stand- point it is a whole brick ; but it may be regarded as a part of a building. A picture has a certain unity in that it represents a single purpose and produces a single effect ; but it cannot do this alone, for both purpose and effect lie outside of the picture, and consequently the picture is but a part of a larger whole which includes conscious individuals. The only absolute unity is the unity of the universe; all others are relative. In order to get intellectual and practical control of any situation, we are justified in considering anything as a whole. The only question concern- ing any conception of unity is: Does it subserve this scientific and practical end?

Since, then, there are various grades or stages of unity, depending upon the purpose of the unifying consciousness, it will be helpful to distinguish between the more significant stages and to place society with reference to this gradation. First, a distinc- tion should be made between a unity and a unit. A unit is a part which may be conveniently used for the measurement or descrip- tion of a whole made up of similar units. A unit is a unit with reference to the whole of which it is a part. A unity is a whole considered as made up of parts which derive their significance from their relation to the whole. Thus, in a flock of birds, a bird may be considered a unit with reference to the flock, which is the unity. Or, if the individual bird be the whole under considera-