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 2S6 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

human association. The organization of human groups rests on psychical conditions. Social organizations are, accordingly, never merely psychical, but always at the same time physical.

As psychical influences may be divided into the internal and external, so, also, may the physical. In the case of psychical influences we have found that it would be partial and unscientific to consider the one side without the other. In the case of physical influences the internal may often be viewed separately from the external. In psychology, for example, the physical ele- ment to be considered is almost exclusively that of the individual. So, also, in the sciences which deal chiefly with the performances of individuals, such as pedagogy, and the investigation of aesthetic, ethical, and intellectual pro- ductions, in which studies the psychological standpoint is decisive. The principle of the influence of external nature is efifective, on the contrary, in study of common achievements and societary conditions and occurrences, i. e., in history proper as well as in the social sciences. The former of these principles, severely followed, leads to a materialistic psychology, the second to a materialistic theory of history and society.

It is to be noted, however, that the two forms of materialism are not neces- sarily inseparable. The second does not bear the name with full justice. We may believe in a domination of human culture by external material facts without on that account going over to materialism, in the psychological sense. On the other hand, we must not overlook the fact that between the two conceptions, and in proportion as they are one-sidedly held, there is a strong aflinity. The psychological materialist is always inclined toward social materialism. The social materialist is less certainly, but still generally, predisposed to psychological materialism.

The natural environment has first an asthetic, second a teleological influ- ence. The aesthetic effect is through the conceptions and feelings, and then the qualities of character produced by constant and repeated contact with natural objects. In the last century this influence was credited with exag- gerated importance by many philosophers {e. g.. Herder, Ideen zur Philo- sophic der Geschichte der Menschheit, Buch VIII., ii). Doubtless this influ- ence, though always real, has a kind of diminuendo value, from the stages of culture that produced mythologies and folk-lore to the more matter-of-fact and unsentimental present. The case is different with the telic influence of the environment. Nature is always a positive factor in men's plans, fixing cer- tain tasks — like preserving the dykes in Holland, or the levees of the Mis- sissippi, or the clearing of snow from the roads in our own latitude in win- ter — and challenging to certain kinds of endeavor for improvement of the conditions of existence. The most systematic and objective study of man in relation to the task of adapting himself to natural conditions has been made in various forms by the economic sciences.

Albion W. Small. The University of Chicago.

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