Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/624

 6lO THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

habits within the group, and greater difficulty of constructing new harmonious social co-ordinations. Hence, large social groups are dependent for their existence upon improved means of com- munication and especially upon improved systems of education which will gradually adapt individuals to the new and complex social life-conditions before they actively participate in the carrying-on of the collective life-process..

Illustrations might be multiplied to show that from the stand- point of social co-ordination, that is from the standpoint of social habit and adaptation, all social phenomena may be psychologically interpreted; that all the fonns of interstimulation and response, that is, all social phenomena, come in in getting new social co- ordinations; and that in order to interpret these phenomena cor- rectly we must show their function in the collective life-process. Enough, perhaps, has been said, however, to show that this psy- chological view of society is an exceedingly fruitful one and that through use of it we may develop not only sound social theories, but also rules for guidance in social work.

DISCUSSION

Michael M. Davis, Jr., New York City

I do not wish to be captious over terms used by Professor Ellwood. THie terminology of sociology is still in the squatter stage, in which title is given by priority on the ground, rather than by tradition, or even fitness. To secure more definiteness and uniformity in usage — surely a present sociological need — is a task which, before long, might perhaps be under- taken by some committee of the American Sociological Society.

I must, however, raise a question concerning one of Professor EUwood's conceptions — ^that to which he applies the title "social co-ordination." Neither the words nor his paper seem adequately to suggest the influence upon a society of the material environment. It is dangerous to lose grip of the fundamental fact that society consists of human beings, biological indi- viduals, who through mutual interaction with each other and with their material environment, are attaining to a larger control of their own and of nature's powers. There is mutual interaction and influence not only between inidividuals in a society but between individuals and environment. Social life is not merely that progressive correlation between individual actions which Professor EUwood's term "co-ordination" suggests — the cor-