Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 8.djvu/249

 THE SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY 237

Ward's briefer classification of the social forces is as follows (p. 472):

Preservative j Positive, gustatory (seeking pleasure), forces. \ Negative, protective (avoiding pain).

Reproductive ( Direct the sexual and amative desires.

forces. ( Indirect parental and consanguineal affections.

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j> y ^Esthetic forces.

$ %> -| Emotional (moral) forces.

.-j Intellectual forces.

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Whether we assume or not that Ward has found the final classification of the social forces, his analysis is a point of departure which affords the readiest approach to the subject.

It is hardly necessary to enlarge upon the importance of the concept social forces, because the argument was virtually fore- shadowed in our discussion of interests. Every desire that any man harbors is a force making or marring, strengthening or weakening, the structure and functions of the society of which he is a part. What the human desires are, what their relations are to each other, what their peculiar modifications are under different circumstances these are questions of detail which must be answered in general by social psychology and in par- ticular by specific analysis of each social situation. The one consideration to be urged at this point is that the concept "social forces" has a real content. It represents reality. There are social forces. They are the desires of persons. They range in energy from the vagrant whim that makes the individual a temporary discomfort to his group, to the inbred feelings that whole races share. It is with these subtle forces that social arrangements and the theories of social arrangements have to deal.

10. Social ends. To suggest the notion of "ends" is to invite metaphysical argument. Our philosophical traditions incline us to speculation about ends as they exist in the abso- lute mind ; ends proposed at the beginning of things ; ends to which all events within our knowledge are tributary, whether we discover it or not ; ends toward which the whole creation