Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/320

 3o6 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

great relationships and reactions which form human association : with the formation of parties, with imitation, with the construc- tion of classes, circles, secondary subdivisions, with the incorpora- tion of the social reciprocities in special structures of material, personal or ideal sorts, with the growth and the role of hier- archies, with "representation" of aggregates by individuals, with the significance of community hostility for the inner coherence of the group. Attached then to such cardinal problems, and likewise determining the forms of the groups, there are on the one hand more specialized, on the other hand more complex facts. In the former class we may name, for example, the meaning of the "non- partisan," of the "poor" as organic members of the societies, the fact of the numerical limitations of the group elements, primus inter pares and tertius gaudens. As more complex occurrences we may name the intersection of many social circles in particular individuals, the special significance of the "secret" in the forma- tions of groups, the modification of the characters of groups according as they are composed of people who belong together locally, or of dispersed individuals, etc.

As already indicated, I waive the question whether an abso- lute similarity of forms occurs along with variety of contents. The approximate likeness which the forms exhibit under circum- stances which are materially quite dissimilar, as well as the reverse, suffices to make the conception of complete likeness possible in principle. In the concrete, the difference between actual historical occurrences in the psychic realm, occurrences whose fluctuations and complexities defy rationalization, and certain other objects of thought, is evidenced in this very fact that the former are not realized without remainders (restlos). This fact may be brought out more distinctly by contrast with geometry, which can with absolute precision separate the forms subject to its idea from the matter by means of which they are actualized. It is also to be kept in view that this likeness in type of reaction, regardless of variety in the human or material substance in reaction, and znce versa, is primarily only an auxiliary to the work of achieving and justifying the scientific discrimination be- tween form and content. Methodologically this would also be