Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 4.djvu/840

 820 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

and categories of functional psychology to societary changes might be drawn from industrial, political, and social history, but space permits only the giving of the above two.

The fact must here be noted that the breakdown of a social habit is not always followed by the building up of a new one in its place. The breakdown may be a sign, not of adaptation, but of social degeneration or dissolution ; or a social habit may be simply "weeded out," as it were, because it has become of dis- advantage to the society in the life-struggle. With societies not degenerate, however, the breakdown of a social habit of any importance or value in the life-process is always followed by the building up of a new social habit. With societies which, though not degenerate, yet contain a large number of degenerate indi- viduals, the building-up process may occupy a period of centu- ries, and may involve (as it always does implicitly involve) a selection of individuals, as well as of psychical stimuli, ideas, etc.; but the new social habit comes in time, if the society sur- vives. Before the church, for example, succeeded in building up a new type of family life, at the beginning of our era, upon the ruins of the patriarchal Roman type, a process of selection involving both individuals and ideas had to go on for centuries ; but the Christian type of family of the Middle Ages was finally evolved. In any such case, where certain individuals in a society are hindrances to the building up of a new social habit necessary to the survival or development of the society, the tendency manifestly is to select those individuals whose beliefs, ideals, and general psychical attitude are favorable to the construction of the new social coordination, and to suppress the others.

A word may here, perhaps, appropriately be said in reference to social selection. Professor James and Professor Baldwin are right in emphasizing the importance of social selection in the societary process. But neither has given any adequate reason why one individual or one idea is " selected," rather than another individual or another idea. Both have failed to show the basis upon which society makes its selection from the variations pro- duced by individuals, utilizing some, rejecting others. Both are practically content to state the fact that society selects, without