Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/555

 REVIEWS 541

Students of theoretical sociology will get little comfort from any of the three publications. We may, perhaps, assume that Stamm hammer has not dealt and does not intend to deal with the literature of legal and political science, because of Miihlbrecht's work. But no such difficulty would be met in the field of sociology. It is much to be hoped that in A future publication Stammhammer will decide to add still another volume to his series, one which shall contain a class fit to receive the title of the work of his distinguished countryman, Bau und Lebcn des sociaUn Korpers. C. H. HASTINGS.

Social and Ethical Interpretations in Mental Development. A Study- in Social Psychology. By JAMES MARK BALDWIN, Professor in Princeton University. New York : The Macmillan Com- pany, 1897. Pp. xiv+574.

THE problem which Professor Baldwin sets himself is "to inquire to what extent the principles of the development of the individual mind apply also to the evolution of society."

Any scientific conception of society must offer solutions of at least three problems : (i) the uniformities or generalizations represented in social institutions, customs, beliefs, etc.; (2) the exceptions or partic- ular variations which find most conspicuous expressions in geniuses ; (3) the real or alleged conflict between social and individual inter- ests.

Professor Baldwin offers as an organon with which to coordinate and interpret these phenomena what he terms "the dialectic of per- sonal growth." This is the key to his whole system. As it gains gradually in definiteness and precision with the progress of the work, its unifying service becomes more and more apparent.

The growth of the person is described as a process involving, first, the recognition of external groups of characteristics or acts which con stitute vague projective personalities ; second, the imitation of these acts or attitudes by which the self appropriates them, /. t. t makes them a part of subjective personality ; third, the reading back into othci these subjective materials, which renders them ejective. By this give- and-take process the same elements are appropriated and assimilated by the individuals of a given society, so that a common personality, a socius, is gradually formed in the consciousness of each. More than