Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/644

 628 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

of societies that are unified, not only with reference to political or creedal or any other single kind of social activity, but with refer- ence to all kinds at once. He writes :

The phrase "social groups" is a more comprehensive expression by which one means a community having the same type of civilization, which implies a combination of economic, legal, moral, religious, scientific, and political similarities. 1

In an article entitled "La realite sociale" he says that a society distinct from others, and unified with respect to the total tide of complex activities which the sociologist investi- gates, is a reality in a much completer sense than that in which the Nile or the Ganges is a reality. 4 He defends the statement thus:

The question is whether the social group forms a true totality* that is

objective and not merely subjective Even when not thought, the

chemical whole formed by the combination of several molecules, the astronomic whole formed by a solar system, the mechanical whole, etc., and a fortiori the organic whole, is something. Is the same true of the social whole? Yes.*

Special emphasis is laid upon the statement that society is unified not alone with respect to its subjective life. He says :

Societies (plural) are not merely masses of inter-spiritual action; they are at one and the same time masses of inter-spiritual and inter-corporeal actions, combined with many physical actions, united struggles with the forces of nature to repel and to utilize them. 1

Professor Tarde went out of his own way to emphasize the mate- rial unity of the social group, thus comprehensively considered. His more characteristic emphasis is upon the spiritual individu- ality of societies, expressed by the phrases "esprit sociale" and "moi social" phrases especially prominent in his Logique sociale. And in closing his article on "La realite sociale" he says: "The social organism is only a metaphor, but the social spirit is a reality." 8 The assumption even of a spiritual life of the community that is unified and distinct save in certain par-


 * Let transformations du pouvoir, p. 2.

' The italic* in each instance are his.
 * Revue philosophique, Vol. LII, pp. 458, 459.


 * Loc. cit., p. 459. ' Ibid., p. 450- " Ibid,, p. 476.