Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/828

 8o8 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

Though the psychical life of the social group may be roughly analogous to the psychical life of the individual, yet the analogy, if such there be, is wholly on the side of function, not on the side of structure. The whole development of psychology, there- fore, which has been represented by such men as Wundt and Kulpe, however valuable it may be in other respects, has had no special significance for the development of the social sciences. A functional psychology is what is wanted for the interpretation of society or any section of its activities. The essential principles of such a psychology, we believe, have already been formulated. The credit of having formulated them belongs to Professor John Dewey,' a statement of whose point of view is a necessary pre- liminary to the argument of this paper.

Professor Dewey's psychological point of view may be put somewhat schematically as follows : The fundamental fact in the psychical life, according to him, is not the sensation, but the coordination of the living organism in some activity — the act.' We cannot get back of the coordination in psychology. Wher- ever we begin, we must begin with a living organism doing some- thing. The unit of psychical activity, therefore, is the act or coordination. In reality there is only one large coordination — the act of living or the life-process. But within this supreme coordination there arise minor coordinations in the adapting of one part of the organism to another, or of one portion of the life-process to another portion. Or, looking at the process from the opposite standpoint, we may say particular acts are coordi- nated, unified, into larger coordinations which control the smaller acts ; and all are finally unified into, and controlled by, the general life-process of the organism. Thus the psychical life is to be regarded and interpreted as a function of the general life-

• The leading ideas of this paper were first suggested to the writer in listening to a course of lectures by Professor Dewey on "Advanced Psychology " in the winter quarter of 1896-7.

' See, concerning the problem here involved. Professor Dewey's article on "The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology," in the Psychological Review for July, 1896. The coordination (or act) may perhaps be defined as " the bringing to a unity of (objective) aim of minor, unorganized activities." The term "coordination" is preferred to the term " act " merely because it can be given a more definite scientific content.