Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/569

 REVIEIVS 549

Professor Giddings would say that the traits of recognized likeness are so fundamental that they include all the accidents of opposition. This is not true, however, when stated in terms of consciousness. It is true if stated in terms of attributes the most decisive of which arc not conscious at all. They are rather common susceptibilities, and consequently common relationships to certain telic econoniies. The author seems to encounter this fact at times, and he varies his formula accordingly.' An ingenious conceptualist may plausibly interpret like irritability as " like-mindedness." This interpretation can stand, how- ever, only as an impressionist's representation, not as a realist's report of reality.

My meaning will be evident, then, when I say that the first fifteen chapters of the book contain Professor Giddings' account of what he finds when he consults his own consciousness as to the traits which society would exhibit if it conducted itself in accordance with his con- ceptions. I do not mean to imply that he thinks the social reality incorrectly at all points, by any means. I mean to say that his render- ing is somewhat analogous with a photograph of an engraving from a portrait. Neither that nor a photograph from nature is perfect, but we have no doubt, on general principles, which is likely to be the closest likeness. Chaps. XVI-XXII, inclusive, traverse much of the same ground that is covered by the previous chapters. They seem, however, to have been written from a more objective standpoint. They try to give an account of the structure and partially of the development of actual primitive society, in accordance with the conceptions of society worked out in the previous division. The remaining chapters, on "Progress," "Democracy," and "The Theory of Society," are concep- tual again rather than objective.

Along with surrender to this subjectivistic conceptualism Profes- sor Giddings' method is seduced by his unquestioning faith in the finality of phrases as an equivalent for scientific discovery. It leads him to overestimate what he has accomplished, when he has merely grouped a lot of familiar things and put a label of his own on them, even though this label takes the place of more specific and scientific designations and classifications. To illustrate, we may take the schedule in chap. V of "the simple modes of all the practical activities known to a population." These are said to be (i) "appreciation," (2) "utili- zation," (3) "characterization," and (4) "socialization." Nothing indicates that Professor Giddings is conscious of any anomaly in making

'E. g., on p. 82. Further reference to this passage follows on p. 552.