Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/372

 360 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

environment; and so has sought to get rather the higher capa- bilities and possibilities of the self, its real inner nature, than to find out its particular state of manifestation at any particular time. Sociology, on the other hand, has busied itself with facts as they came before its observation, and with correlating them with stages of association that are commonly called lower. 6 Just as in psychology you cannot explain the higher processes by exactly the same terms used in explaining the lower, and as "chem- istry can say something of all material substances but it can say less in proportion, as of those which have biological sig- nificance," so sociology, having largely given its attention to the lower forms, has fallen short of the mark when it comes to treat of the higher, more complex self-manifestations in a complex environment, and thus has failed to achieve the unity sought for. On these grounds, may we not conclude for our purpose here that the unity that sociology seeks can be achieved only when we take into account the element of possible self-development, and so the ideal ? This would, of course, introduce philosophy directly into the middle of our search for the social desideratum, viz., unity.

The work of Messrs. Giddings, Ward, Tarde, and Baldwin has shown very conclusively that the psychological, and therefore subjective, factor is of prime importance in sociological investiga- tion ; so that present appearances seem to warrant the opinion that the most fruitful field for the search for the unifying principle of societary phenomena is to be just this. It is significant to note M. Tarde's building all sociological explanation around the prin- ciple of imitation, and that Professor Giddings makes conscious- ness of kind central.

Let us take up, in the first place, the primary units of societary phenomena, viz., conscious individuals. Now, to understand the phenomena arising from the interaction of these individuals (for that is the problem of sociology) we must understand the indi- viduals. To enter into such a discussion fully would take us too far afield, and we will confine ourselves to several of the more evident points. A conscious individual is a vastly more complex unit than the atom or the molecule which is the unit of physical

Mind, N. S., Vol. VI, pp. a fi.