Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/238

226 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY point of view, would be a psychology of individual mental processes, so far as these are socially conditioned.

It is hard to see how a "psychical process" can "extend throughout the group" without the group presenting "unified consciousness," unless we assume that there are some psychic processes which are not processes of consciousness. In fact, this is Dr. Elwood's assumption. He forgets that the psychic process is the process from the standpoint of consciousness as such, and takes certain objective things and calls them psychic.

The merit of the work of the psychological sociologists is that, in spite of a false form of statement, it has actually assisted in calling attention to the importance of a correct analysis of the psychic individual as a means to the explanation of social phenomena. The older philosophers, political scientists, and economists based their theories upon certain unanalyzed psychological assumptions. They had simplified the character of the psychic individual in a way that seriously falsified it. Some simplification was inevitable. In order to get any statement of a scientific character, it was necessary to reduce the number of factors of so complex a situation by ignoring the less important. The criticism is not that they did ignore some factors, but that through a false analysis they were led to ignore certain factors that were essential to the solution of their problems. This, of course, led to false conclusions. Now, in spite of the fact that much of the psychology used by the psychological sociologists is inadequate, they have helped to create a demand for the use of a better psychology. In spite of the fact that they have confused the unity of the social process with the unity of the psychic process, they have emphasized the fact that the social process can be explained only through a better knowledge of the social individual.

It may be admissible, in conclusion, to venture a somewhat more formal definition of the social unity. A social group is a unity in that all the activities of its various members may be thought of as constituting a whole, and that this conception has scientific and practical value. A social group is an objective unity in that its end lies outside of itself, as a unity in that society is not conscious. A society may be thought of as organic in that