Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/381

 THE SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY 367

The sociological theory "of Gumplowicz reads the individual out of the list of meaning terms in the societary equation. His thesis is that the individual is so assimilated by the group as to be no longer significant ; and the social process is consequently a process of the determination of resultants between conflicting group-energies. His mistake is one of the most familiar in all discursive thinking. He tries to dogmatize a factor into the place of all factors. The "group-individuality," as Ratzenhofer phrases it, is a real and mighty force in the social reaction, but it is impossible to find an association in which the individuality of the members is an entirely negligible quantity. Even in such an artificial and abnormal association as that of a body of prisoners in a penitentiary, among whom the power of individual initiative is reduced close to the minimum, the reaction of the group upon the officials and upon the outside world often betrays the peculiar quality of some individuals. In normal associations, larger or smaller, conventionality is no more actual than heightened individuality.

In this connection we have then one of the groups of marks of a stable or unstable association, of greater or less permanence in the social order, of a healthy or unhealthy state in its organi- zation. We have discovered as yet no absolute ratio between the elements of individuality and of collectivity in associations. It is not a part of the present argument to propose a theorem to establish such a ratio. We have merely to register the observa- tion in this primary division of our subject, that just as inter- dependence and community are general facts of associations, so the persistence, the differentiation, the accentuation of the separateness and variety of individuals are also universal in associations. Those associations in which individuality is least encouraged, such as the army, are merely functional devices that serve certain purposes of larger associations of which they are organs. They do not monopolize the life of the individuals in their membership. On the other hand, all schemes of society and human life are evidently passed upon by the world's ulti- mate tribunal, experience, according as they furnish scope for the elemental and final factor, the individual. The incident of