Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/227

 THE NATURE OF THE SOCIAL UNITY 215

dependent and constantly repeated ; in the other there are seeding, germination, nutrition, growth, etc., likewise mutually dependent and constantly repeated. Having completely objectified the term " organic," ignoring its implications of consciousness, there is no reason why it should not be applied to plants. When thus used, this circuitousness of the process as a whole this inter- dependence of the partial processes constitutes the entire conno- tation of the term. Whether the botanist speaks of the function of some part of a plant the tendril is to enable the vine to climb or the use of some means to an end by the plant the vine uses the trellis to lift itself upon or of some effort put forth by the plant the plant reaches out with its tendrils to grasp the trellis it is all on the same objective level. Although the terms of conscious experience are used, no consciousness is implied.

Stated summarily, the concept of unity involves purpose, or end in consciousness. The various grades or stages of unity are marked by the way the concept of end is involved. If the end lies outside of the thing itself, if it is a mere means, it is not an organic unity. If the end is involved in the nature of the thing, it is an organic unity. The grade of inorganic unity depends upon the degree to which it represents specialized purpose. The hammer represents a higher grade of unity than does the pebble, the engine a higher grade than the hammer. There is no real organic unity except the unity of experience; only a reflective individual can have an end in consciousness. The concepts of purpose, function, means, and ends are objectified and carried over and applied to certain non-conscious unities, thus making them objectively organic or quasi-organic. Such are the unities of biological science, so far as consciousness is ignored. The objectively organic unity of the plant resembles the organic unity of experience in that it is a circuitous, self-reinstating process with interdependent parts. 4

What are the characteristic facts of the social unity? What sort of whole is society ? How does the unity of society resemble other forms of unity, and how does it differ from them ?

4 This is not an attempt to give a systematic statement of the various grades of unity. Only so much of this is done as was valuable for the particular pur- pose of this paper.