Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/683

 PROLEGOMENA TO SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 663

between a society and its form of government ; but no exact pre- vision, since, as individual psychology teaches, no two psychical coordinations can ever be exactly alike. On this account a socio-psychological interpretation of political and legal phe- nomena will, perhaps, be unacceptable to those who, like Comte, long for a rigid science of society, a "social physics," which shall make possible in social life the exact prevision of the mathematical sciences.

Concerning the inner life of the state, as well as concerning political and legal systems, social psychology will have some- what to say. The problem of political parties, of their rise, growth, and disappearance, lies almost wholly within its territory. Here, too, belongs the explanation of those disturbances of the political life called revolutions. The objective interpretations of revolutions have notoriously failed ; none of them have been principles of universal, or almost universal, applicability. If any principle of explanation of universal validity can be found, it must be a socio-psychological principle ; for revolutions are matters of social habit, feelmg, and belief, that is, of the social psychic process.

The need of social psychology in the judging of social pro- grams for reform may here also be noted. The real objections to the propositions of socialism, for example, are mainly socio- psychological, inasmuch as socialism concerns social organization. A thorough understanding of the psychical life of society will furnish criteria for the just criticism of the propositions of social- ism. Through social psychology their consistency or inconsist- ency with the psychical process of social development can be shown, and a judgment formed as to the probable effect of a socialistic regime upon that process. Not alone the propositions of socialism, but also other programs for social betterment, need the criticism of social psychology. The propositions of the indi- vidualist as well as those of the socialist are likely to show the lack of a proper understanding of the psychical life of society. In fact, the proper method of procedure in all attempts at gen- eral social betterment can be determined only through social psychology. As individual psychology must underlie the doc-