Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/544

 53 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

distinguished qualitatively in this way : One connotes individuals convinced, either emotionally or intellectually, of an indi- viduality which is predominantly antagonistic to other indi- viduals. Not recalling now in detail our analysis of the content of the individual element, but assuming that this content is in principle constant, we restate the progress of individuals from struggle to socialization as a passage through (#) recognition of other individuals (or groups); advance toward recogni- tion of equal value in other individuals (or groups) ; (<:) pro- gressive discrimination of the elements of value thus to be recognized ; (d] progressive extension of the diameter of these recognitions until it includes all men.

Now, the ethical rating of a state depends upon (i) the degree in which the individuality of each citizen is practically recognized; (2) the extent to which individuals approach demand for complete self-expression ; (3) the degree and extent in which the activities that pass for moral in the state are articu- lated with the life-processes of other men.

There are thus dimensions of length, breadth, depth, and height in the ethical measure of a state. Its character depends on whether it takes account of the present moment only, or of a long past and a long future ; whether it takes into view a small, or a large, or a universal association ; whether it contemplates basic human wants, or ideal human conditions, or the whole scale of interests from base to summit.

It of course seems anomalous to declare on the one hand that no states are today properly ethical in the sense in which we use the term, 1 and on the other hand to propose a classifica- tion of states on the basis of their ethical differences. In explanation we may say, first, that there have probably been states in the past which should be classed as ethical, e.g., the Hebrew commonwealth at certain stages of its history ; second, while it would do violence to obvious facts if we were to assume that either of the leading states today is, as a state, "ethical" rather than "civic" or "economic," it is true that the ethical factors in the minds of the people of these states are sufficiently

1 Cf. above, p. 519.