Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/621

 PSYCHOLOGICAL VIEW OF SOCIETY 607

suggestion and imitation. At any rate, the mechanism by which the transition from one social habit to another is effected must be made up of various forms of interstimulation and response, and among the more important of these are public criticism, free dis- cussion, public opinion and conscious social selection of ideas and individuals. It is obvious that without these the process of social change, of continuous readjustment in society, could not go on; that new habits adapted to the new life-conditions could not replace the old habits which are no longer adapted.

Here must be briefly noted the function of imitation in this process of continuous social readjustment. As Professor Bald- win has, insisted, imitation, in its broadest sense, is undoubtedly the chief means of propagating acquired uniformities in human society. Its exact function, as just pointed out, is to mediate in the formation of those social co-ordinations, where uniform, concerted activity is desirable. It comes in, therefore, to assist in building up most social habits. The error of the imitation sociologists consists in fixing attention upon but one element in the building-up of social co-ordinations, rather than upon the whole process. The tacit assumption of the imitation theorists is that it is the uniformity or likeness of activity which makes social co-ordination, society, possible; whereas unlikeness of activity is necessary for many of the higher forms of social co-ordination. In the family, for example, while imitation smoothes the way for many adjustments, yet many of the co-ordinations between its members are possible only because of original and acquired differences. Imitation does not, therefore, enter into all social relationships — that is, into all forms of interstimulation and response. It is, however, the great and indispensable means of bringing about unity in a group when uniform concerted action is necessary or desirable. Hence, all social species, including man, are highly imitative. The tendency to imitate, therefore, like communication, must be regarded as an outcome, an instru- ment, of the social life, not its basis.

Ordinarily, the process of continuous readjustment in society, the breaking-down of old social habits and the building-up of new ones, goes on without shock or disturbance. Changes must