Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/523

METAPHYSICAL ELEMENTS IN SOCIOLOGY $07 mind of the investigator; for that is where it must be in order to become a conscious sociological principle, and consequently before it can become a scientific principle. It cannot arise in his mind before the self-notion has arisen, and therefore is not the attribution of consciousness of kind to these lower spheres of animate existence, simply reading something into their minds which is in ours, but stripped of the qualities which we know cannot exist in those minds. But can it be consciousness of kind in those lower stages; is it not a vague sense of resemblance, which in the higher realms becomes consciousness of kind? These lower stages, while not real cases of consciousness of kind, would have a value for sociology simply as showing that there is a gradual development which later emerges into consciousness of kind; just as, and no more than, sociology finds that looking into animal societies is of value on account of the light which they throw upon human society which is the proper problem of the science. Someone might say that the view here taken as to what is meant by the term "society" is too narrow. Consequently the present writer cites as authority Professors Giddings and Baldwin, in the Baldwin Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology. The distinction is made between "society" and "company." The definition of "society" signed by both of the above-mentioned is: "a social group characterized by some degree of reflection and voluntary co-operation." This is immediately followed by the following definition, taken from Professor Giddings' smaller book, which calls society "a number of like-minded individuals who know their like-mindedness, and are therefore able to work together for common ends." Now, psychologists are agreed that "reflective co-operation" would be impossible for animals, since they have not sufficiently the power of reflection. Professor Giddings' definition comes out even more strongly when he says that these individuals of society "know their like-mindedness." Such a knowledge would be altogether impossible for animals. This strengthens the above contention that the process of shearing down consciousness of kind to a state which might appear in an