Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/233

 THE NATURE OF THE SOCIAL UNITY 221

each man's mental processes, a certain dissimilarity would be found. No two would be entirely alike. No matter with what power the circumstances control the minds of the people, each man's character and previous experiences will in some way modify his sentiments and ideas, thus giving him an individuality of his own. Conscious personality does not vanish. If it did, there would be no "persons in the gathering," and consequently no sentiments and ideas to " take one and the same direction." Of course, this similarity of sentiments and ideas is an important feature of the situation. But just as long as we consider ideas and sentiments, we get not unity, but plurality. The very lan- guage of the statement "all the persons," "same direction" compels the reader to think plurality, not unity. This is not to deny unity to the crowd, but the unity is found entirely on the side of overt activity, not on the side of consciousness.

Similarly Professor Giddings's theory of social unity is based essentially upon the common content of consciousness and the common purpose of co-operating individuals. His position is best presented by means of a few quotations :

Believing that sociology is a psychological science, .... I have endeavored to direct attention chiefly to the psychic aspects of social phenomena. 7

It [sociology] is a science that tries to conceive of society in its unity and attempts to explain it in terms of cosmic cause and law.*

The central doctrine of this book is that the consciousness of kind dis- tinguishes social from non-social phenomena, and is the principal cause of social conduct.*

As long as everybody talks about " public opinion," the " popular con- science," the " sovereign will of the people," and so on, nobody need be deceived by such terms as "the social consciousness," "the social mind," " the social memory," and the " social will." No careful reader of these pages will suppose that I believe in a social Ego, a social sensorium, or a tran- scendental somewhat over and above individual minds. My view of the whole subject is made perfectly clear, I hope, when I say that by the social will I mean nothing more and nothing less than the concert of individual wills."

All true social facts are psychical in their nature."

It might be thought that sociology could meet this criticism [as to failure to demonstrate the underlying unity alleged] by surrendering all sub-

T Principles of Sociology, ad ed., Preface, p. v. 'Ibid., p. 16.

Ibid., Preface, p. ix. "Ibid., Preface, p. xvi. "Ibid., p. 3.