Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/669

 THE SOCIAL AND THE EXTRA -SOCIAL.-

§4. Extra-social Conditions (Sec. 3i3<^). — While considering as we have the two intra-social or psychological forces, which we have now discussed as the only truly social forces, we should not overlook the very important group of influences which con- dition the sociological movement. These influences are really, so to speak, the banks or barriers which set limits to the social cur- rent, and even, by interaction with the strictly social forces, leave their marks within the social body. Their relation to the social forces properly so called is similar to that which the psycholo- gists recognize between the strictly psychological and the physi- ological. The various states of the body, such as intoxication, fatigue, starvation, and over-nourishment, affect the mind, and so influence the individual's mental development; but we do not call them psychological forces. They are of psychological value only because, through the sorts of stimulation and limitation which they afford, they condition certain uniform results in the psychological organization itself. The analogy thus cited — between the extra-social influences with the effects they bring about in the social whole, and the extra-mental or physiological influences with their influence upon the individual's mental life — is indeed more than an analogy. When we reflect, we find that it is through the connection of mind and body — one term of the analogy — that the extra-social forces — the other term of the analogy — get their value. It becomes, therefore, still more apparent that we cannot call the influences enumerated below social forces ; for so far are they from having direct value in the organization of society that they become factors in that organiza- tion only by the indirect road of stimulation to the nervous sys- tem of individuals. It would be just as approjjriate to call blood-changes psychological facts as to call physical changes,

'The form of this brief article and its allusions are due to its consisting of certain new sections added by the writer in the new editions of his work Social and Ethical Interpretations.

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